Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese

Maggie Cotto (Stetson University)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

First published in 1850,

Sonnets from the Portuguese

is a sequence of 44 love sonnets written secretly by Elizabeth Barrett in 1845-6 during her courtship with fellow poet Robert Browning. The two married in September 1846, yet the reluctant Mrs. Browning did not present these passionate poems to her husband until three years later. At this time, he insisted on their publication in the second edition of Barrett Browning's book

Poems

. He later explained, “I dared not keep to myself the finest Sonnets written in any language since Shakespeare's”. Browning himself suggested the title

Sonnets from the Portuguese

to give the impression that the work was a translation so that its very intimate nature would be somewhat disguised.

The story of the Brownings' romance is famous today. The two

1791 words

Citation: Cotto, Maggie. "Sonnets from the Portuguese". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 July 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1939, accessed 19 March 2024.]

1939 Sonnets from the Portuguese 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.