Sonnet 29 - ‘I think of thee!’, Elizabeth Browning

• Context


  ● Part of collection of 44 sonnets - allegedly written to Robert Browning whom she was courting at the time: presents their complex relationship ● Sonnets usually written by men, subverts gender expectations + expresses strong emotions rationally
• ‘My thoughts do twine and bud’


  extended metaphor, active verbs show desire
• ‘As wild vines about a tree’


  simile, wild shows intense passion
• ‘Deep joy to see and hear thee

  - burst, shattered, everywhere!’


  broken sentence, overwhelming emotion, frustration - triadic structure
• ‘I do not think of thee - I am too near thee’

  resolution at the end, physical harmony, antithesis to poem opening
• ‘Rustle thy boughs’


  auditory imagery, inevitable love (natural connotations)
• ‘Renew thy presence’


  direct address to absent lover with imperatives
• ‘My palm tree’ 


  possessive, stable and dependent
• Early volta (shift in tone) line 5

  impatience to be close, controls her emotions - she is aware of what it will do to her
• Themes and comparisons (PART 1)

  ● PORPHIRYAS LOVER: longing from lack of physical connection: use of natural imagery, first person narrative, intense emotion (repetition vs broken lines), comments on desire and physical love, (harmony vs destruction) positive resolution vs violent and jealous ending, lover’s presence will solve issues
• Themes and Comparison (PART 2)

  ● LOVES PHILOSOPHY: longing as a result of denied physical love (first person, frustration), desire for physical unity (structure short concise, intense emotions and nature), unresolved vs solution (early volta, endings + direct address vs vagueness of lover)
• Themes and Comparison


  THE FARMERS BRIDE: intense emotions + frustration highlighted through nature, exclamations and caesurae, desire for possession/physical love, harmonious relationship longing vs forced one that has distance