Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-61) was one of the most popular poets of the Victorian era.

She
was born in County Durham, England in 1806 and spent much of her childhood in Herefordshire,
and although she received no formal education, she read widely at home and was well-versed in
the classics. She was plagued by health problems and spent much of her life inside the family
home, with her father unwilling to let her see many people.

She would, however, begin a celebrated correspondence with the young poet Robert Browning in
1844, following a fan letter he sent her declaring his admiration for her volume Poems. The
Barretts’ family life, and Mr Barrett’s hostility to Robert Browning, would be dramatised in the
Rudolf Besier play The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1930), after the name of the London road
where they lived.

In 1846, Elizabeth Barrett secretly eloped with Robert and married him, despite her father’s wishes
to the contrary. The couple went to live in Italy and had several children. Their son, known as
‘Pen’, later stated that despite his parents’ earlier romantic correspondence, after his mother and
father were married they never wrote to each other again, because they were never apart.

Barrett Browning’s major achievements are the long verse-novel Aurora Leigh (1857), about a
young orphan girl who goes to live in Italy and becomes a successful writer, and the sonnet
sequence about her love for Robert, Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850). This volume contains
her most widely anthologised poem, the sonnet which begins ‘How do I love thee? Let me count
the ways.’

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'How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)' by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Line-by-Line Analysis

Lines 1–4

This sonnet helped kick-start many more on the theme of modern (Victorian) love, from a woman's
perspective. Note the emphasis is on the repetition and reinforcement of the speaker's love for
someone; there is no mention of a specific name or gender, giving the sonnet a universal appeal.
The first line is unusual because it is a question asked in an almost conversational manner—the
poet has challenged herself to compile reasons for her love, to define her intense feelings, the
ways in which her love can be expressed.

There then follows a repetitive variation on a theme of love. To me, this conjures up an image of a
woman counting on her fingers, then compiling a list, which would be a very modern, 21st-century
thing for a female to do.

This poem comes from another era, however, a time when most women were expected to stay at
home looking after all things domestic, not writing poems about love.

The second, third and fourth lines suggest that her love is all-encompassing, stretching to the
limits, even when she feels that her existence—Being—and God's divine help—Grace—might
end, it's the love she has for her husband Robert that will sustain.

Note the contrast between the attempt to measure her love with rational language—depth,
breadth, height—and the use of the words Soul, Being and Grace, which imply something
intangible and spiritual.

Her love goes beyond natural life and man-made theology. These are weighty concepts—the
reader is made aware that this is no ordinary love early on in the sonnet. The clause, lines 2–4,
contains enjambment, a continuation of the theme from one line to the next.

Lines 5–8

The speaker, the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, continues with her passionate need to
differentiate the many ways her love for her husband manifests. In line five, she clearly tells the
reader that, be it day or night, her love fills those quiet moments, those daily silences that occur
between two people living together.

Her love is unconditional and therefore free; it is a force for good, consciously given because it
feels like the right thing to do. She doesn't want any thanks for this freely given love; it is a humble
kind of love, untainted by the ego.

Lines 9–14

The sestet starts at line nine. The speaker now looks to the past and compares her newfound
passions with those of the old griefs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning had plenty of negativity in her
adult life—she was mostly ill and lived like a recluse, seeing only old family friends and family.

Her father in particular oppressed her and wouldn't allow her to marry. There were no romantic
relationships in her life by all accounts. She must have been driven to the point of willing herself
dead. Little wonder that when Robert Browning came along she was given a new lease of life.

In contrast, her childhood had been a happy one, and it's this she refers to in the second half of
line ten. A child's faith is pure and innocent and sees fresh opportunity in everything.

Turning to religious feelings in line 11, the speaker refers to a lost love she once had for the saints
—perhaps those of the Christian church, of conventional religion. Or could she be looking back at
the saintly people in her life, those she held in great regard and loved?
She suggests that this love has now returned and will be given to her husband. In fact, so stirred
up is she with these innermost feelings she goes on to say in line twelve, with just a dash to
separate—this returned love is her very breath. Not only that, but the good and the bad times
she's had, is having, will have—this is what the love she has is like. It is all-enveloping.

And, in the final line, if God grants it, she'll carry on loving her husband even more after she dies.

So her love will go on and on, beyond the grave, gaining strength, transcendent.
Michael Drayton And Sonnet 61

'Since There's No Help' (Sonnet 61) is Michael Drayton's most famous poem, included in the
book Idea's Mirror (Mirrour) of 1594 and again in Poems of 1619.

A prolific author, Drayton was a well-known poet of the time and a regular in Queen Elizabeth's
court at a time when England was fast becoming the world's powerhouse.

When she died in 1603 Drayton's days as a courtier were numbered because her successor,
James 1st, was not a supporter of his writing. But he continued to publish both prose and poetry
and, whilst never a top league player, he gained a reputation for precision and clever reasoning in
his work.

Writing sonnets was the thing to do if you were a poet in the late Elizabethan period. Many were at
it, including John Donne, Samuel Daniel, Philip Sidney and above them all, William Shakespeare,
the upstart-crow, the master.

Drayton must have read the work of his contemporaries, and they his. Over time his style
developed and alongside his pastoral and historical work the sonnets took their place.

Since There's No Help (Sonnet 61)

Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part.

Nay, I have done, you get no more of me;
And I am glad, yea glad with all my heart,
That thus so cleanly I myself can free.
Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows,
And when we meet at any time again,
Be it not seen in either of our brows
That we one jot of former love retain.
Now at the last gasp of Love’s latest breath,
When, his pulse failing, Passion speechless lies;
When Faith is kneeling by his bed of death,
And Innocence is closing up his eyes—
Now, if thou wouldst, when all have given him over,
From death to life thou might’st him yet recover!

Analysis of Drayton's Sonnet 61

Drayton's Sonnet 61 is just one part of a long sequence of sonnets inspired by actual persons, or
Muse, but has over time gathered momentum as a stand-alone creation.

In short, the first eight lines describe the ending of a love affair, that final kiss and exchange before
an amicable parting, never to cross paths again. The final six lines use personification in an
attempt to alter the situation at the last moment and revivify love.

In other words, the speaker is initially adamant that nothing more is available, from him for sure,
which could restore their former loving relationship. Love is dead, long live Love!
The first quatrain is all about the speaker, the I, the me—he is happy to part cleanly because it will
bring a sense of freedom.

The second quatrain reinforces this idea of a permanent severance and focuses on the two of
them, our, we—they should forget what they had, they should deny they ever had a relationship
and that they're completely over each other.

The third quatrain rests on the personification of Love as it fades away—gone is the passion, gone
is the faith, the innocence that love brings.

The final couplet brings change and a sudden turnabout. The speaker urges the lover to revive the
Love, bring him back to life.

Literary/Poetic Devices in Drayton's Sonnet 61

Alliteration

When two or more words are close together and start with the same consonant. For example:

That thus....more of me...when we meet at any time again...Love's latest...pulse failing,

Passion...by his bed...have given him...

Assonance

When two or more words are close together in a line and have similar-sounding vowels. For
example:

hands for ever, cancel...when we meet...Be it not seen...at the last gasp...bed of death...have
given him...

Caesura

When a pause occurs midway through a line, through use of punctuation (or rarely, naturally). For
example: When, his pulse failing, Passion speechless lies;

Enjambment

When a line runs on into the next without punctuation, bringing momentum and maintaining sense:

Be it not seen in either of our brows. That we one jot of former love retain.

Personification

When an object or idea or noun is given human attributes. For example:

When Faith is kneeling by his bed of death,