Sonnets from the Portuguese is a sequence of forty-four love sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, published in 1850. Written during her courtship with the poet Robert Browning, the poems trace her journey from doubt and illness to a love she had thought impossible. It is one of the best-known sonnet sequences in English.
A secret courtship
Robert Browning first wrote to Elizabeth Barrett in January 1845, after admiring her poems. She was an invalid, kept at home by a domineering father.
They married secretly in 1846 and left for Italy. She wrote the sonnets during their courtship and showed them to her husband only years later.
The sequence
The sonnets follow the Petrarchan form. They move from the speaker's sense of unworthiness and nearness to death towards trust and joy.
The forty-third sonnet, which counts the ways of loving, is among the most quoted love poems in the language.
The title
To disguise the personal nature of the poems, the Brownings gave them a title suggesting a translation from Portuguese.
Robert's pet name for his wife was my little Portuguese, after her poem Catarina to Camoëns, about the Portuguese poet's beloved.
Anecdotes
A gift at Bagni di Lucca
According to Robert Browning, his wife slipped the manuscript of the sonnets into his pocket one morning in 1849, at Bagni di Lucca, and left the room.
A famous poet
At the time, Elizabeth Barrett was better known than Robert Browning, and she was even considered for the post of Poet Laureate in 1850.
Frequently asked questions
How many sonnets are there?
Forty-four.
For whom were they written?
For the poet Robert Browning, her husband.
Are they translations from Portuguese?
No, the title was a disguise for very personal poems.