“Sonnets from the Portuguese” uses the traditional form of the Italian petrachan sonnet to present the theme of love and relationships discussed within the poem. The poet, to develop the argument of the different stages of love, uses this traditional form of sonnet. This allows for a change in tone or mood as the sonnet is broken down into two sections, the octave and the sestet, containing eight and six lines respectively. This was a traditional way to pr

The control of the love and the relationship can be presented to the reader in this poem, demonstrating an alternate aspect of theses themes. This cannot only be presented through language, but also through structure. The structural point of rhyming couplets such as:

Those his fair daughter’s self…

The portrayal of love and relationships in the sestet presents to the reader a comparison to poetic voices’ past. The portrayal of how “I love thee with… my childhood’s faith” show how the innocence and purity of the relationship and love, but also the child like quality of unconditional trust that is evident. This trust is also accentuated by the religious themes, which have been woven into the poem such as “ I love thee freely, as men turn from Praise” as religion is upheld, by trust and belief. The religious comparisons also convey love to be a religious experience, this is shown in the octave, as the poetic voice compares the relationship and love to “ideal Grace” which, conveys the idea to the reader of ultimate beauty or an ideal state of being.

To conclude, by presenting the differing aspects of love and relationships, a true image is revealed. Love and relationships alone are not always joyful, eternal and “ideal” but also can feature “darkness and corruption”. To experience love, is to experience a range of emotion, from joy to pain, charitable to possession and “ideal Grace” to (perhaps) death. Love and relationships present an idea of a great life experience, one that we should all gain. As Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote, “It is better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all”.

Remember me when no more day by day

Than that you should remember and be sad.

The language of this abstract image portrays love to be inconfinable. This is emphasized by “when feeling out of sight” as the image of the love is portrayed as being further that can actually be seen which accentuates the boundless image of love. The poetic voices’ “soul” adds to the this image as a soul is not an object which can be contained within the body as it knows no bounds, and so the portrayal of love can be viewed as eternal. This image also depicts the magnitude of love as the language of “depth and breadth and height” shows how vast the love the poetic voice feels.

Some topics in this essay:
Sonnets Portuguese”, Robert Browning, love relationship, love relationships, poetic voice, , Christina Rossetti, portrayal love, relationship love, Barrett Browings’, love thee, Lord Tennyson, rhyme scheme, sonnet form, aspects love, “ love, aspects love relationships, portrayal love relationships, “ love thee, thee depth breadth, portrayal love relationship,