Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Though I have a love for poetry, I found Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s work Sonnets from the Portuguese to be a bit lofty and long winded. I really found interest in the imagery that she used and the beauty that fills each line of the excerpt that I read. However, I did not understand the poem completely the first time that I read it, but after reading the work a few more times I found that I was able to understand the work a little better, although still not as well as I would like, and I was also able to appreciate the beauty of Browning’s words. I found the second stanza to be the most intriguing part of this particular work because I can almost feel the difficulty of explaining one’s love for another that is presented in the first few lines.

And wilt thou have me fashion into speech
The love I bear thee, finding words enough,
And hold the torch out, while the winds are rough,
Between our faces, to cast light on each?

When I read theses lines I immediately thought of how difficult it is to find the words to describe how you feel about someone that you love. Telling someone, other than a family member, that you love them is often very difficult to do, especially when those feelings that you are trying to express are completely sincere and genuine and not just a lofty expression of some stupid feeling of lust. I really felt that Browning was describing this situation in near perfect words and that is why I took a great deal of interest in this stanza of her work.