Video: Sonnet 43 (Part 2)

﻿Hello, and welcome to this lesson, where we'll be analysing the language form and structure of the poem "Sonnet 43" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. All in relation to the theme of love. For today's lesson, all you need is a pen, paper and something to write on or with. Please take a moment now to clear away any distractions, including removing any notifications, including turning off any apps or conversations that you have running, if you know how to. And finally, try to find a quiet place where you won't be distracted during this lesson. Okay, so when you're ready, let's begin. Today, we're going to be answering this question. How does Barrett Browning explore ideas about love in "Sonnet 43"? And as I mentioned before, we're going to be using our language structure and form analysis of the poem in order to do that. In today's lesson we're going to start with two key words, then we'll look at the central themes of how our Love's presented, we'll analyse some language from key quotations, then take us over to form and structure and finish off by applying to some literature analysis of the permit itself with a review quiz at the end. So let's start with those two key words. The first one is a key term anaphora. Meaning a repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive lines, sentences or clauses. What that means is, lines or sentences that come straight after each other. It's always at the beginning of that phrase. Got a famous example here from Winston Churchill's famous speech from world war II. "We shall go onto the end. "We shall fight in France, "we shall fight on the seas and oceans, "we shall fight with growing confidence "and growing strength in the air." You can hopefully see that Churchill uses anaphora, repeating we shall fight at the beginning of successive clauses here. Pause your recording and write down anaphora and the definition now. And enjambment is our next one. Enjambment is where a sentence continues over several lines of poetry. My example here. "I love thee to the depth and breadth "and height my soul can reach when feeling out "of sight for the ends of being an ideal grace." Hopefully you recognise that as "Sonnet 43." Here the three lines, are all one sentence because that sentence is continued over several lines. Please write down enjambment and the definition now. And I've got a quick quiz for you here. Which of the following is a example of anaphora? Is it A? I believe in the right of education for all. I believe that the quality of your lesson shouldn't depend on your postcode. I believe that together we can reform the education system. Or is it B? I believe in the rights of education for all. The quality of lessons shouldn't depend on your postcode. I truly believe that together, we can reform the education system. Write down your answer because the answers coming up in three, two and one. The answer was A because we've got I believe in, I believe, I believe at the beginning of each of those sentences. Therefore it's anaphora. Now let's move on to enjambment. Which of these is a correct example of enjambment? Is it A? "She walks in beauty like the night "of cloudless climbs and starry skies." Or is it B? "I love thee freely, "as men strive for right. "I love thee purely as they turn from praise." Write down your answer, the answer is coming up in three, two and one. The correct answer was of course A, because the sentence continues over two lines here. So now we're reviewing some previous key words that we've studied. The first one is eternal, meaning lasting forever, and the second is profound. Meaning something felt strongly or showing a deep understanding. I'd like you to use both of these today, as you're describing how love is presented in the poem. Write them down if you need to. Pause and do that. Now we're going to look at the two central key themes. The first one is spiritual love. Browning presents her love as eternal and equal to her love for God. So she draws this connection between her love for her partner and her love for God. Stating that she will love her partner "better after death." Demonstrating that their love will transcend, go beyond life on earth. Much the same way that love for God does. She asserts that her love enriches her soul. When she says, "I love thee to the depth and breadth "and height my soul can reach." We get this imagery of the soul, getting bigger and reaching out because of the love. And she also states that she loves him "with a love she seemed to lose with her loss saints." Suggesting that her love has renewed her faith in God and those saints who she previously lost. And our next key theme is love versus reason. Barrett Browning presents love as so profound, so deep that it goes beyond reason and justification. She starts by trying to justify love in rational, sensible terms by "counting the ways" in which the speaker loves her partner. This initial attempt at reason is undermined when she recognises that her love is infinite. It goes on forever and she will "love him better after death." So let's check that you understood that. Answer these questions in full sentences please. Number one. What are the two central themes of "Sonnet 43"? Two, does Barrett Browning present her love as eternal lasting forever or transient lasting, a short period of time? Number three, what does Barrett Browning try to do at the beginning of the poem? And four. What does Barrett Browning realise about her love by the end of the poem? Pause and write down your answers, because the answers are coming up in three, two, and one. Number one, the two central themes of "Sonnet 43" are spiritual love and love versus reason. Two, Barrett Browning presents her love as eternal lasting forever, even after death. And three, at the start of the poem, she tries to justify her love in rational terms, by counting the reasons. But by the end of the poem, she realises that her love is infinite. She will "love him better after death." Pause the video to check and correct your answers. Now we're going to look at the language and specifically focus on these three language methods that Browning uses to portray her love as spiritual and eternal. The first is a list. That's a number of connected items written one after another. The second is personification. Giving human features to a non-human object or idea. And the third is anaphora that we looked at earlier. Remember that's a repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of lines, sentences or clauses that come after each other. Let's look at that first quote then it's from line one. "How do I love thee? "Let me count the ways." Barrett Browning uses a rhetorical question, how do I love thee? Which doesn't require an answer to address her lover. What is she asking? Number two, the speaker tries to count the ways that they love their partner. How does counting present her love? Pause and write your answers now, they're coming up in three, two and one. Barrett Browning is asking this rhetorical question to try and define how she loves her partner in rational terms. And two, by saying that she's "counting the ways," Barrett Browning suggests that the speaker's attempting to justify love in rational terms and therefore to understand it. Which she later realises she can't do. Pause the video to write down those corrections if you need to, and we're moving on lines two to three. "I love thee to the depth and breadth and height, "my soul can reach when feeling out of sight." In that first time we get the ideas of all the different dimensions that the soul can expand to, and then the next line, we get the idea that the soul is expanding and growing because of that love. Number one, here Barrett Browning personifies her soul as "reaching." What does this imply about the impact of her love on her soul? Two, the soul is typically associated with religion and heaven. What does it suggest about her love? If it affects her soul? And three, Barrett Browning lists the dimensions of her soul in "depth and breadth and height" to emphasise how her love fills the edges of her soul. How does the list depth and breadth and height emphasise this? Pause the video to write down your answers. They're coming up in three, two and one. Number one, personifying her soul is reaching implies that her love helps her soul expand and grow. Two, the souls typically associated with religion and heaven. So by describing her soul as growing Barrett Browning implies that her love is spiritual and enriches her as a whole person. And number three. Listing the depth and breadth and height that her soul grows, emphasises how she's empowered in multiple ways. And that her soul is developing and growing in all directions. Pause the video to check and correct those answers. And our next quote is from lines 11 to 12. "I love thee with a love I seemed "to lose with my lost saints." She's saying she loves her partner with the same fervour and devotion that she wants loved saints, who she's now or who she since forgotten about. Number one, what does lost saints suggest about the speaker's faith in God? Two, what is the speaker saying that her love for her partner has equal to? And three, Barrett Browning suggests that her faith in God, has been reignited in these lines. How does that present her love? Write down your answers and pause the video answers are coming up in three, two and one. "Lost saint" suggests that the speaker stopped believing in God in the past, and two, the speaker saying that her love for her partner is equal to that reverential love or devotion that she used to have for saints. So three, Barrett Browning is suggesting that her faith in God has been reignited in these lines. And this presents her love is profound and deep because it goes beyond the everyday. And affect her spiritually and her relationship with God. Pause to check and correct those answers, and our final quotation is lines 13 to 14. "If God choose, "I shall love thee better after death." These are the final two lines of the poem. The speaker says that they will love their partner better after death. What does this imply about their love, if it continues after death? And two, what does the speaker seem to imagine will happen after their death to the two people in the relationship? Pause the video to write down your answers, they're coming up in three, two and one. Number one, by saying she will "love her partner better after death," Barrett Browning implies that her love is powerful as it is eternal lasting forever and it transcends or extends death. Number two, the speaker seems to imagine that her and her partner will be together in heaven forever after they die, which adds to the idea of their love being spiritual. Okay, pause the video to check and correct those answers. We're moving on to the form and structure of the poem and thinking about how that relates to the theme of love. First, let's start with the form. The form of this poem is a sonnet. Sonnets are 14 line poems, which are almost always about love and have a specific metre and rhyme scheme. Barrett Browning uses a petrarchan or Italian sonnet. Think about the purpose of this poem, linked to love, why might Barrett Browning use sonnet, which is typically about love for this poem? Number two, Barrett Browning and her husband eloped run away to Italy, to escape her judgemental family. Why might she choose an Italian sonnet form for this poem? Pause the video to write your answers. They're coming up in three, two and one. Number one, Barrack burning may have chosen a sonnet, which is typically about love or more serious important topics to highlight how this poem, is a celebration of her love for her partner. Number two, Barrett Browning and her husband and loped run away to Italy to escape her judgemental family. She may have chosen an Italian sonnet form, to draw upon how her love gives her freedom in the same way, that eloping to Italy gave her and her husband freedom. Pause the video to write your answers. And now we'll look at the structure specifically enjambment. Remember enjambment is when a sentence continues over several lines of poetry. As we can see at the beginning here, "I love thee to depth and breadth "and height my soul can reach "when feeling out of sight for "the ends of being and ideal grace." You can see that sentence continues over lines one to three without interruption. Number one. What is Barrett Browning describing in these lines? Two, how does the enjambment emphasise this idea of what the soul is doing? And three, how does the use of gentlemen present her love? Pause the video to write your answers. They're coming up in three, two and one. In lines ones to three Barrett Browning is describing how her soul seems to grow and develop as a result of her love. Two, the enjambment allows a sentence to be continued beyond the lines, showing how it cannot be contained. This mimics how her love is so powerful that it also cannot be contained. And three. The use of enjambment highlights that her love cannot be defined, or contained because it is so profound. Pause the video to check and correct those answers. We're now applying our learning to that literature paragraph that I told you about earlier. The question that we will answer is how does Barrett Browning explore ideas about love in "Sonnet 43"? I want you to spend 15 minutes writing this answer. And I want you to consider how Barrett Browning presents her love as spiritual. How her understanding of love changes throughout the poem. I want you to back that up with quotations and analysis, both language and structure and form from the poem and try to weave in some context of the poem and how that impacts how her love is presented. Some words to include are spiritual related to God, eternal, lasting forever, profound, a deep understanding, personification giving human features to a non-human thing, anaphora repetition of a word or phrase, at the beginning of successive sentences or clauses, and enjambment where a sentence continues over multiple lines. Pause the video and take 15 minutes to write that. Here's an example answer of what you could have written. Barrett Browning presents her love as spiritual When she comments on how it develops her soul, growing it to the "depth and breadth "and height that it can reach." This suggests that her love helps her soul expand and grow. As the "soul" is typically associated with religion and heaven, this implies that her love is spiritual. She also says that her love is eternal when she declares that she will "love her partner better after death," which implies that, even death cannot stop her from loving him. Notice how we've got multiple quotations here. We've started with a clear idea of how love is presented, and we've said what those quotations suggest. I'm now going to show you an even better example. Here's the developed answer. Barrett Browning presents her love as spiritual. When she comments on how it develops her soul, growing it to the "depth and breadth "and height that it can reach." This suggests that her love helps her soul, which is typically associated with God and heaven to develop, enriching her as a person. Browning uses enjambment in these lines, to mimic how her soul is developing and cannot be contained because it is so strong. She also says that her love is eternal when she declares that she will "love her partner better after death", and uses religious imagery throughout, which implies that her love transcends or goes beyond death. Perhaps Barrett Browning, wanted to highlight this idea, as it maybe addressed to her husband and as she was ill for much of her life, she may be wishing to reassure him about their love. Hopefully you can see that this answer is much more detailed, we've still got those multiple quotations, but now we've got a bit more subject terminology there and the effect of those, for example, where it talks about in enjambment and religious imagery. And we've also got context from Barrett Browning's life at the end. Pause the video to add anything that you missed to your paragraph, and to think about what you could do to improve it. Now I'd like you to complete the short review quiz. It's just five multiple choice questions, so that we can see what you've understood and what you still need to learn. Thank you for your focus today. That brings us to the end of today's lesson. A really big well done on all the learning you've achieved. I'd like you now to look back at your notes and identify the three most important things that you've learned today. It's totally up to you what they are. Thanks for learning with me, have a great day.

Exit Quiz: Sonnet 43 (Part 2)

Completed: Sonnet 43 (Part 2)

In this lesson, we are going to take a closer look at the language, form and structure Barrett Browning uses to create meaning within the poem. We will be focusing specifically on the theme of love in our analysis.

English

Sonnet 43 (Part 2)

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Final Quiz

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