The Poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning PDF

Preview

Summary

An essay about the theme of religious devotion in Browning's poetry...

Description

‘if God choose, / I shall but love thee better after death’: Romantic love as a form of religious faith in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese Approaches to Literature I: Writing Modernity Fiona Milne Word Count: 1,377 Referencing Style: MLA

1

‘if God choose, / I shall but love thee better after death’: Romantic love as a form of religious faith in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese explores the concept of Christian faith through its presentation of the speaker’s unalterable commitment to her lover as a powerful form of religious devotion. Whilst it is important to note that this collection of sonnets is not strictly autobiographical, it is clear that the poem mirrors Elizabeth Barrett’s own relationship with Browning with regards to the emotional journey that it symbolises. Due to Browning’s constant struggle with ill-health, she had become somewhat of a ‘recluse’ [CITATION Ann11 \p 493 \l 2057 ], resulting in her approaching the potentiality of courtship with Robert Browning with an air of trepidation. This sense of fear is alluded to in the opening sonnet of the sequence, in which the speaker personifies Love as a ‘mystic Shape’ (I.10) that approaches her from behind and draws her ‘backward by the hair’ (I.11). This predatory image, paired with the sound of a disembodied voice that addresses the speaker ‘in mastery’ (I.12), portrays Love as a powerful entity; by metaphorically comparing Love’s voice to ‘silver’ (I.14), Browning suggests that it is both rich and free from all impurities, much like the love that the speaker possesses for her lover. The faith that the speaker places in the masterful ‘shadow’ (I.9) of Love not only reflects Browning’s own devotion to her husband, but also her strong belief in Christianity. Thus, the term ‘faith’ adopts a dual meaning in relation to Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese. This essay intends to examine the complex relationship between religious faith and romantic love, with particular focus on the way in which both forms of devotion complement, and perhaps even rely, on one another. Browning emphasises the powerful intensity of the speaker’s devotion to her lover by treating the relationship as though it were a form of religious commitment; the speaker’s marriage to her lover is fused together with her spiritual marriage to God, both appearing to be as strong and enticing as one another. This view is expressed by Emmanuel Swedenborg in his book Conjugal Love, in which he states that ‘The Lord’s Divine providence is most specific and most universal in connection with

2

marriages… because all delights of heaven flow from the delights of conjugal love’ [CITATION Emm95 \p 20 \l 2057 ]. Coinciding with traditional Catholic wedding vows, in which the couple must make their vows ‘in the presence of God’, Browning implies that God is an omnipresent source of love within the speaker’s relationship. This is primarily shown through the use of Biblical allusion, in particular the act of Creation, as the speaker metaphorically compares the intensity of the love she feels for her lover to a feeling of being at one with God. In Sonnet XXVII, Browning explicitly refers to her ‘Beloved’ (XXVII. 1) as one who has ‘lifted’ (XXVII.2) her from the ‘drear flat of earth’ (XXVII.2) on which she has been ‘thrown’ (XXVII.2), which carries immediate connotations of resurrection and rebirth. Similar to an act of Godly ascension, the speaker is spiritually raised by her Beloved and lifted to a higher spiritual plane than that offered by the ‘drear flat of earth’ (XXVII.2). This Biblical imagery is further extended through Browning’s allusion to Genesis 2:7 of the Bible, in which God reportedly ‘formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life’ (Holy Bible New International Version, Gen. 2:7). In referring to her lover’s kiss as a ‘life-breath’ (XXVII.4), Browning suggests that the speaker not only considers her lover to be a source of life, but also her Creator; thus, the speaker worships him as a figure of all-encompassing love and spiritual faith. The concept of God’s compassion being present within the speaker’s romantic attachment to her lover is further explored by Browning in Sonnet II, in which she states that ‘only three in all God’s universe’ (II.1), including ‘Himself’ (II.2), have heard her partner affectionately declare his love for her. By anthropomorphising God and referring to this figure of divinity as ‘Himself’ (II.2), Browning emphasises the intimate nature of the speaker’s spiritual relationship with God. God communicates his love for the speaker through her lover, who has become a vessel of the divine as a result of her devotion to both figures having merged into a single body of faith. Browning draws allusions to Shakespeare’s Sonnet CXVI, in which Shakespeare confidently claims that love ‘looks on tempests and is never shaken’ (CXVI.6), to highlight the permanency of the faith that the speaker has invested in her lover. The speaker’s claim that ‘the seas [cannot]… change us, nor the tempests bend’ (II.11) allows the reader an insight into Browning’s own Christian views about the implications of fate and 3

divine intervention. In William Merry’s The Religious Opinions of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Browning writes that ‘it may be God’s will… to keep me in the world to watch, wait, and perhaps work far, far longer than once I could have believed… possible’ [ CITATION Bro06 \l 2057 ] ; in relation to romantic love being a form of religious faith in Sonnets from the Portuguese, it is clear that Browning considers God to be a source of strength within the speaker’s relationship with her lover. Rather than causing a conflict of faith, God’s intervention within the relationship fuels their love and gives it an otherworldly quality that the speaker deems a ‘divine condition’ [CITATION Ave03 \p 141 \l 2057 ] worthy of worship. It is important to consider the way in which Browning’s use of the sonnet form itself reiterates the notion of the speaker’s love for her partner becoming a form of religious faith, as during the time of its publication, sonnets had ‘conditioned the expectations of readers to hear a male subject speaking to a female object’ [CITATION Ave03 \p 125 \l 2057 ]. In her book ‘Victorian Religion: Faith and Life in Britain’, Julie Melnyk explores the importance of vocation in relation to women embracing a more dominant role within Christianity. According to Melnyk, ‘God’s calling one individual to undertake a particular task… was a psychologically and rhetorically powerful justification for women undertaking non-traditional public work’ [CITATION Jul08 \p 126 \l 2057 ]; thus, Browning’s subversion of the sonnet form by using it to express a deep sense of devotion to a lover from a female perspective can be interpreted as a symbolic reformation of her Christian faith. This is expressed in Sonnet XLIII, in which the speaker addresses her lover by stating that ‘if God choose, / I shall but love thee better after death’ (XLIII.14) The verb ‘choose’ (XLIII.14) connotes a sense of autonomy and control, suggesting that the speaker views God as a source of both guidance and inspiration within her relationship. Ultimately, whilst Browning’s faith in God can be seen to fuel her devotion to her husband, it is the romantic love that she expresses for him that metamorphizes it into a new form of religious faith. This is emphasised through the speaker’s exhilarated declaration that she loves him ‘with the breath, / Smiles, tears, of all’ (XLIII.13) her life, as she physically and emotionally gives herself to her lover in all aspects of life, whether it be in moments of sadness or in times of joy. 4

It is in Sonnet XLII of Sonnets from the Portuguese that Browning truly marks the transition of romantic love into a new form of religious faith however, as the speaker consciously chooses to turn away from ‘the white throne of God’ (XLII.5) and embrace her ‘New angel’ (XLII.14). The speaker’s reference to ‘New angel mine’ (XLII.14) radiates with a sense of intimacy and devotion, as the personal pronoun ‘mine’ emphasises her desire to hold her lover close without having to share him with the public. This reluctance to allow others to see this ‘New angel’ (XLII.14) can be seen as a reflection of the way in which religion was treated in society at the time of publication, as ‘religion in Victorian England was part of the private sphere- a matter of individual faith and domestic devotion’ [CITATION Jul08 \p 124 \l 2057 ]. Whilst the speaker still expresses a love of the Christian God and the guidance that He offers, she ultimately finds herself seeking comfort in the arms of her lover; thus, romantic love and religious faith are no longer separate branches of devotion, but rather a singular form of all encompassing love.

5

Bibliography Avery, Simon and Rebecca Stott. Elizabeth Barrett Browning. n.p: Pearson Education Limited , 2003. Browning, Elizabeth Barrett and William Merry . The Religious Opinions of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1906. Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning with a Portrait. London: Smith, Elder & Co, 1900 Emmanuel Swedenborg, trans. N. Bruce Rogers. Conjugal Love. New York: Church of the New Jerusalem, 1995. Melnyk, Julie. Victorian Religion: Faith and Life in Britain. Westport (Conn.): Praeger Publishers, 2008. Shakespeare, William. The Sonnets of Shakespeare, Edited from the Quarto of 1609. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1924 Weiss, Anne Buchanan and Ellen Buchanan. "Of Sad and Wished-For Years: Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Lifelong Illness." Perspectives in Biology and Medicine (2011): 479-503.

6...