The Poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

If you thought Shakespeare wrote sonnets, you were right.

However, Shakespeare was only one of the many English poets who wrote sonnets. Two of the three forms of sonnets were named after their originators, William Shakespeare and Edmund Spenser.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was another British poet who wrote famous sonnets. Instead of using the Shakespearean or Spenserian sonnet forms, Browning preferred a third form of a sonnet, the Petrarchan sonnet.

Browning's choice of the original sonnet form, the Petrarchan sonnet, isn't surprising when you examine her life.

As a child, Browning was largely influenced by classical language and the study of Greek and Roman literature. Also, she spent the last fifteen years of her life living in Italy with her husband, the poet Robert Browning.

As you read this Elizabeth Barrett Browning Biography, answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper.

• Why were the Barrett children required to keep the surname "Barrett"?
• What type of education did Browning receive as a child?
• How would you describe the familial relations of the Barrett family when Elizabeth was a child?
• How old was Browning when she became a published poet?
• What subjects interested Browning as a child?
• What issue possibly caused a rift between Browning and her father in the 1830s?
• What three tragedies struck Browning between 1837 and 1840?
• What inspired Robert Browning's courtship of Elizabeth?
• What was the reaction of Elizabeth's father and brothers after she elopes with Robert Browning?
• What subject became a prominent theme in Browning's poetry?

Browning wrote many types of poems, but her most famous poetry collection was Sonnets from the Portuguese, a series of 44 poems chronicling Elizabeth's courtship with Robert Browning.

These poems were all written in the Petrarchan sonnet form, created by the fourteenth-century Italian poet Francesco Petrarch.

As you read What Are the Main Features of the Petrarchan Sonnet? and watch the video below, take notes to answer the following questions.

• How many lines does a Petrarchan sonnet contain?
• What are the first eight lines of a sonnet called?
• What are the last six lines of a sonnet called?
• How many stanzas make up the octave, and what are they called?
• What is the poetical term for the "turn" of the poem, and where does it occur in a Petrarchan sonnet?
• How many syllables does every line of a sonnet have, and what is the name of the rhythm for the line of a sonnet?
• What are the two possible rhyme schemes of a Petrarchan sonnet?

• Did you find that a Petrarchan sonnet is a 14-line poem that consists of an octave followed by a sestet, with a rhyme scheme of abba abba cde cde or abba abba cdc dcd?

If so, congratulations! You are on your way to becoming a Petrarchan sonnet expert.

Now, move on to the Got It? section to experience a few of Browning's sonnets.