Sonnets from the Portuguese

Author: Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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Description Sonnets from the Portuguese

Sonnets from the Portuguese, written ca. 1845–1846 and first published in 1850, is a collection of forty-four love sonnets written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The poems largely chronicle the period leading up to her 1846 marriage to Robert Browning. The collection was acclaimed and popular even in the poet's lifetime and it remains so today. Elizabeth was initially hesitant to publish the poems, feeling that they were too personal. However, Robert insisted that they were the best sequence of English-language sonnets since Shakespeare's time and urged her to publish them. To offer the couple some privacy, she decided that she might publish them under a title disguising the poems as translations of foreign sonnets. Therefore, the collection was first to be known as Sonnets from the Bosnian, until Robert suggested that she change their imaginary original language to Portuguese, probably after his nickname for her: "my little Portuguese." (Summary from Wikipedia)

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I thought once how Theocritus had sungBut only three in all God’s universeUnlike are we, unlike, o princely heartThou hast thy calling to some palace floorI lift my heavy heart up solemnlyGo from me. Yet I feel that I shall standThe face of all the world is changed, I thinkWhat can I give thee back, O liberalCan it be right to give what I can give?Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful enoughAnd therefore if to love can be desertIndeed this very love which is my boastAnd wilt thou have me fashion into speechIf thou must love me, let it be for noughtAccuse me not, beseech thee, that I wearAnd yet, because thou overcomest soMy poet, thou canst touch on all the notesI never gave a lock of hair awayThe soul’s Rialto hath its merchandiseBeloved, my beloved, when I thinkSay over again, and yet once over againWhen our two souls stand up erect and strongIs it indeed so? If I lay here deadLet the world’s sharpness, like a clasping knifeA heavy heart, Beloved, have I borneI lived with visions for my companyMy own Beloved, who has lifted meMy letters! all dead paper, mute and white!I think of thee!–my thoughts do twine and budI see thine image through my tears tonightThou comest! All is said without a wordThe first time that the sun rose on thine oathYes, call me by my pet-name! Let me hearWith the same heart, I said, I’ll answer theeIf I leave all for thee, wilt thou exchangeWhen we first met and loved, I did not buildPardon, oh, pardon that my soul should makeFirst time he kissed me, he but only kissedBecause thou hast the power and own’st the graceOh yes! they love all through this world of ours!I thank all who have loved me in their heartsMy future will not copy fair my pastHow do I love thee? Let me count the waysBeloved, thou hast brought me many flowers

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