Sonnets from the Portuguese

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

44 chapters47mEnglish1850

About this book

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)

Chapters (44)

1I thought once how Theocritus had sung

2But only three in all God’s universe

3Unlike are we, unlike, o princely heart

4Thou hast thy calling to some palace floor

5I lift my heavy heart up solemnly

6Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand

7The face of all the world is changed, I think

8What can I give thee back, O liberal

9Can it be right to give what I can give?

10Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful enough

11And therefore if to love can be desert

12Indeed this very love which is my boast

13And wilt thou have me fashion into speech

14If thou must love me, let it be for nought

15Accuse me not, beseech thee, that I wear

16And yet, because thou overcomest so

17My poet, thou canst touch on all the notes

18I never gave a lock of hair away

19The soul’s Rialto hath its merchandise

20Beloved, my beloved, when I think

21Say over again, and yet once over again

22When our two souls stand up erect and strong

23Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead

24Let the world’s sharpness, like a clasping knife

25A heavy heart, Beloved, have I borne

26I lived with visions for my company

27My own Beloved, who has lifted me

28My letters! all dead paper, mute and white!

29I think of thee!–my thoughts do twine and bud

30I see thine image through my tears tonight

31Thou comest! All is said without a word

32The first time that the sun rose on thine oath

33Yes, call me by my pet-name! Let me hear

34With the same heart, I said, I’ll answer thee

35If I leave all for thee, wilt thou exchange

36When we first met and loved, I did not build

37Pardon, oh, pardon that my soul should make

38First time he kissed me, he but only kissed

39Because thou hast the power and own’st the grace

40Oh yes! they love all through this world of ours!

41I thank all who have loved me in their hearts

42My future will not copy fair my past

43How do I love thee? Let me count the ways

44Beloved, thou hast brought me many flowers

Sonnets from the Portuguese

About this book

Chapters (44)

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