Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnet 32

Every lover needs to be exposed to Elizabeth Barrett Browning during their courtship experience. I wish I had been exposed to her explicit love poems before I wed. Her words, so vivid and rich, express all the feelings and emotions I felt during the time my husband began to woo me. It is as though Ms. Barrett Browning knowingly expressed my deepest cares for me, because she knew I would be unable to do so as lovingly as she was able to. For this, I express as great connection to her work. Especially, her Sonnet 32, because it expressed how there is no stronger feeling then that of love.

“The first time that the sun rose on thine oath
To love me, I looked forward to the moon
To slacken all those bonds which seemed too soon…” (531; lines 1-3)

Here, Barrett Browning is experiencing the world through the lens of love for the first time. In this world, consumed by raw emotion, all that is dark is cast away by the light love produces. In love, as with light, sickness cannot live; despair cannot grow. There is only enough room for love, the love that the two share for one another. I think this is an important aspect to pay attention to. The love between her and Robert Browning helped her escape her sick room, both mentally and physically. The sun that shines in line 1 is a metaphor for the sun that she had not seen for years being tucked away in her room. She was now free.

Though she was gaining a new sense of freedom from all that had imprisioned her, she was still captivated by the idea of being so withdrawn from the world. Would she have enough to offer Robert after being confined to her lounge chair for so long? Or is she too “out of tune” (531, line 7) to be a match for his lovely love? Is the love they share strong enough and/or worth giving up all that she would lose to be with him? Most people in the initial stages of love have asked themselves question similar to these, and I believe all can relate to her worry and her excitement.

Most people have even questioned if they deserve the love they feel.

“And, looking on myself, I seemed not one
For such man’s love!—more like an out-of tune
Worn viol, a good singer would be wroth” (531-532, lines 6-8)

But why does she question the love? Why can’t she just except that they belong together? Does their age difference mean that much to her? I believe Mrs. Browning suggests that love is a powerful force, which blinds the human of its capability to reason, and if looked at through too much haze could cause the heart to break and to hate. She was protecting herself from herself and the ills of a bad decision. But such is love. Ms. Browning could not have known what was ahead for her and her romance. She couldn’t have imagined that her life would be an example for many modern American women in love to follow. She helped the likes of Mariah Carey and Demi Moore feel comfortable in marrying men much younger than they are. Her example of courtship is a remarkable testimony to the power to love and to overcome.