Valentine And Sonnet 43 Analysis

589 Words3 Pages
How do the poems ‘Valentine’ and ‘Sonnet 43’ compare in their portrayal of love? Two poems written approximately 150 years apart, by two extra-ordinary women of their era: ‘Sonnet 43’, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, a classic example of a Victorian love poem written as a sonnet, with a flexible rhyming scheme. ‘Valentine’, by Carol Ann Duffy, a controversial expression of modern day free verse; the irregular stanza allowing for the freedom of speech that Browning would not have experienced. Elizabeth Barrett Browning opens her sonnet with a rhetorical question: ‘How do I love thee?’ which she answers with a list to her husband-to-be, expressing how much she loves him. Her father disapproved of Robert Browning and eventually disinherited her; she never saw her father again when she went to Italy. Cut off from the family wealth and support, her dependence on Browning increased. Within the poem she is reinforcing her own belief that she ‘loves him’ by repeating the phrase ‘I love thee’ eight times over the fourteen lines; giving it a feeling of a pros and cons list.…show more content…
‘…Depth and breadth and height...' is used in the bible to show God’s love is so wide, high and deep that it encompasses every one. ‘… ideal Grace.’ God’s perfect (ideal) grace for us is renewed every day giving us what we do not deserve. Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘Valentine’ opens with a shock statement: ‘Not a red rose or a satin heart.’ rejecting modern symbols associated with love. She had freedom in the acceptance of modern society to shock and explore negativity. She is not rejecting love though, she goes
Open Document