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I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out.
~~Elizabeth Barrett Browning
I write quite a lot of sonnets, and I think of them almost as prayers: short and memorable, something you can recite.
~~Carol Ann Duffy, contemporary British poet, playwright, and freelance writer |
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Born in 1806 at Coxhoe Hall, near Durham, Elizabeth Barrett Moulton-Barrett was the daughter of Edward Moulton-Barret, a man who derived his wealth from sugar plantations in Jamaica. Being from a family of great wealth, Elizabeth grew up in the west of England and was schooled by private tutors. She published her first collection of verse at the young age of fourteen.
In her late teens, she contracted a mysterious illness which affected her abdominal area, causing chronic pain. (Other resources state the disease was a spinal infection which affected her lungs.) Though doctors of the day could find nothing wrong gynecologically, she was long an invalid, using morphine to control the pain. In 1835, Elizabeth moved to London with her family where she contributed many writings to periodicals. In 1838, she was sent to Torquay because of a broken blood vessel. By this time, Elizabeth's family had lost most of their wealth. While in Torquay, Elizabeth's favorite brother, Edward, drowned in an accident. After her brother's death, she developed a morbid phobia of meeting people, secluded herself in her home and devoted her time entirely to literature. Always unhappy with her physical appearance, she never allowed her photograph to be published.
Her writings were praised by many of her contemporaries, including Edgar Allen Poe. She was predicted to be England's poet laureate following William Wordsworth, but narrowly lost that appointment to Alfred Lord Tennyson.
At the age of 39, Elizabeth fell in love with fellow poet Robert Browning, but the courtship was held in strict confidence, because Elizabeth's father forbid all twelve of his sons and daughters to marry. One year later, she fled her home and her controlling, domineering father and married Robert Browning in a church near Wimpole Street. She never returned to her father's home. (Her mother had died years earlier.) Though she wrote letters to her father entreating forgiveness, he never forgave her, returning her letters unopened.
After marrying, Elizabeth and Robert Browning moved to Florence, Italy. Where she could not walk, up long staircases or across the waters of the stream at Vaucluse, Browning carried her. Their only child, Robert (Penini) was born three years later. Italy remained their home.
In Italy, Elizabeth"s health improved, along with her phobia, and she became an activist, supporting the Italian independence movement and opposing slavery. She also wrote in protest of male domination. Taken together, these things decreased her popularity. In her later years, she developed an interest in spiritualism. On June 29, 1861, in Florence, Italy, Elizabeth Barrett Browning died in her husband's arms.
Among Elizabeth Barrett Browning's best known poems were Sonnets from the Portuguese. "Portuguese" was the pet name given to her by her beloved husband Robert Browning. The sonnets were written in secret before the marriage and Elizabeth had no intention of publishing them. Upon later discovering them, her husband called them the finest sonnets written in any language since Shakespeare and proceeded to have them published. Throughout the Sonnets, Elizabeth deliberately invokes the Petrarchan sonnet tradition only to revise it according to her own historical moment. Even today, the love story of Elizabeth and Robert is one of the best love stories ever told, and much of it was told in their poems to each other.
Of her death, Robert Browning wrote, Then came what my heart will keep till I see her again and longer -- the most perfect expression of her love to me within my whole knowledge of her. Always smilingly, happily, and with a face like a girl's, and in a few minutes she died in my arms, her head on my cheek... There was no lingering, nor acute pain, nor consciousness of separation, but God took her to himself as you would lift a sleeping child from a dark uneasy bed into your arms and the light. Thank God.
Admirers of Elizabeth Barrett Browning compare her imagery to Shakespeare and her use of the Italian (Petrarchan) sonnet to one of its original users, Italian poet Petrarch, for whom the form was named.
The place of Elizabeth Barrett Browning in English literature is high, if not upon the summits. She had an original genius, a fervent heart, and an intellect that was, if not great, exceedingly active. She seldom has composure or repose, but it is not true that her poetry is purely emotional. It is full of abundant, and even over-abundant, thoughts. It is intellectually restless.
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ebrownin.htm
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/152
http://www.worldofquotes.com/author/Elizabeth-Barrett-Browning/1/index.html
http://www.nndb.com/people/036/000031940/
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3822/is_200210/ai_n9114170/pg_1
The Petrarchan Sonnet, employed by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, is the oldest and most common of sonnet forms. The Petrarchan Sonnet is a rhyme-rich poetry form written in iambic pentameter, which means each line has ten syllables written in 5 iambs (or iambic feet) of unstressed/stressed syllable combinations. Generally, the Petrarchan Sonnet is divided into two stanzas. The first stanza is an octave (eight lines) and the second stanza is a sestet (six lines). Some poets, while keeping the proper rhyme scheme and other requirements of the form, choose to compose the Petrarchan in one complete 14-line stanza.
The first stanza, the octave, has a consistent two rhymes:
abbaabba.
The second stanza, the sestet, has two or three rhymes, depending on the rhyme scheme chosen by the poet. The sestet has one of three rhyme schemes:
cdecde
cdcdcd
or
cdedce
Put together, the rhyme scheme is:
abbaabba cdecde
abbaabba cdcdcd
or
abbaabba cdedce
The octave (first stanza) presents an argument, observation, question or some other answerable charge. Between lines 8 and 9, a turn or volta occurs and the sestet (second stanza) marks a shift in the argument or narrative of the first stanza and presents a counterargument, clarification, or whatever answer the octave demands.
Here is one of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Petrarchan Sonnets:
Sonnet XXXVIII
My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!
And yet they seem alive and quivering
Against my tremulous hands which loose the string
And let them drop down on my knee tonight.
This said-he wished to have me in his sight
Once, as a friend: this fixed a day in spring
To come and touch my hand. . . a simple thing,
Yes I wept for it-this . . . the paper's light. . .
Said, Dear, I love thee; and I sank and quailed
As if God's future thundered on my past.
This said, I am thine-and so its ink has paled
With lying at my heart that beat too fast.
And this . . . 0 Love, thy words have ill availed
If, what this said, I dared repeat at last!
~~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Notice that the famous poet used the abbaabba cdcdcd rhyme scheme. Here her poem is presented as one stanza, but the requirements of the octave and sestet and the turn or volta at line is evident as the last six lines give response to the narrative of the first eight lines.
http://www.forwardpress.co.uk/04_workshop/workshop_09.htm
http://books.guardian.co.uk/fentonserial/story/0,,800278,00.html
http://www.sonnets.org/basicforms.htm
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5791
If you desire, you may create a Petrarchan Sonnet and receive gps and credit toward a Poetry Merit Badge by posting your newly created Petrarchan poem in the non-contest activity "Invalid Item" .
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Petrarchan Sonnets - notice that most of these poets used the two stanza format in composing their sonnets.
| |  | Eve's Daughter (ASR)
A silent observer wishes for the opportunity to confess. A Petrarchan sonnet.
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#970972 by Not Available. |
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#1293826 by Not Available. |
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Cloned-Line poems posted in "Invalid Item" :
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#1418119 by Not Available. |
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#1426641 by Not Available. |
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#1428411 by Not Available. |
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mARi☠StressedAtWork 
Waaa!!!
Very interesting form!!!
I'll try writing something like this!!!
Thanks. I am glad you find like the form. Let me know if you create a Cloned-Line poem. I would like to read it.
A thinker never sleeps
You have a real talent for poetry and for explaining formats. Now I find you have a talent for creating formats as well or is that `For poetry a real talent you have. I'll have to attempt this one and check out your contest.
Thank you. Your comments are quite humbling. Poetry is a wonderful art and there is so much to learn about it. I enjoy the ride.
monty31802
Great newsletter Larry, I like your new form of poetry and will experiment with it when I get a chance.
Thank you Monty. Send me a link to your Cloned-Line form if you get a chance to write one. I would like to read it.
Ms.Magi
"In the February Poetry Newsletter Challenge, I presented the Revanche poetry form. Recently, I heard from the creator of this form, David Hirt."
Awesome...and there are actually people who think no one notices what is written here!
Great job! I love getting my newsletter!
Magi, thanks for your PR for Writing.com - a great place.
guddi
a real good issue.some great points to help me...
Thank you Guddi. I am always honored when I am able to present things that help others.
Thank to each one who reads the Poetry Newsletter. The Poetry Newsletter Editors appreciate your feedback.
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Poetry: May 21, 2008 Issue [#2404]
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