Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Sonnet 44” from Sonnets from the Portuguese finds the speaker musing on the flowers her belovèd has given her. She quickly transforms the physical blossoms into metaphysical blooms that symbolize the lover’s bond.
First Quatrain: “Belovèd, thou hast brought me many flowers”
The speaker muses about the flowers that her belovèd has given her during summer. To her it seems that the flowers have remained as vibrant indoors in her “close room” as they were outside in the “sun and showers.” They seem to have remained healthy and glowing even during winter.
She insists that they “grew / In this close room” and that they did not miss “the sun and showers.” Of course, the physical flowers are just the motivation for the musing, which transforms the physical blooms into flowers of a metaphysical sort, those that have impressed images on her soul, beyond the image on the retina.
Second Quatrain: “So, in the like name of that love of ours”
Thus, the speaker commands her belovèd to “take back these thoughts which here unfolded too.” She is referring to her sonnets, which are her flower-thoughts given to her beloved to honor their love. She affirms that she plucked her sonnet-flowers “from [her] heart’s ground.”
And she composed her tributes on “warm and cold days.” The weather in her heart and soul was always equal to producing fine blossoms for her loved one. As she basked in his love, the flower “beds and bowers” produced these poems with floral fragrance and hues.
First Tercet: “Be overgrown with bitter weeds and rue”
The speaker then inserts her usual self-deprecatory thoughts, admitting that her floral efforts are surely “overgrown with bitter weeds and rue,” but she gladly submits them for him to “weed” as needed. He can correct her clumsiness. She names two of her poems “eglantine” and “ivy” and commands him to “take them,” as she used to take his gifts of flowers, and probably gifts of his own poems to her as well.
Second Tercet: “Thy flowers, and keep them where they shall not pine”
The speaker commands her belovèd to safeguard her pieces so “they shall not pine.” In his care, she will also not pine. And the poem will “instruct [his] eyes” to the true feelings she bears for him.
Her poems will henceforth remind him that she feels bound to him at the soul. The “colors true” of her sonnets will continue to pour forth her love for him and “tell [his] soul their roots are left in [hers].” Each sonnet will reinforce their love and celebrate the life they will make together.
Linda Sue Grimes - As a writer, researcher, and SRF devotee, Linda Sue Grimes has studied poetry and practiced Kriya Yoga for over thirty years..
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