Style of Writing and Use

Style of Writing and Use of Language in the Poetry of Elizabeth Browning

In 1845, Robert Browning wrote Elizabeth Barrett to tell her that he loved her verses with all his heart (Ricks 33). Considering that they had never met and that this was the first letter to Elizabeth from her future husband, one must wonder what it was about her verses that prompted Robert to fall in love. Elizabeth's style of writing and use of language were unique and wholly her own. She composed her verses in the Age of Romanticism, when poetry was believed (in particularly by her) to have a kind of religious power (Ricks 8). And Edgar Allan Poe, in his review of her 1844 book of poetry "The Drama of Exile, and Other Poems," stated that "Miss Barrett has need only of real self-interest in her subjects, to do justice to her subjects and to herself" (Poe 126). This sense of self-interest can be found in those poems which spring from Elizabeth's most personal places -- such as her famous poem to her husband, sonnet 43, "How Do I Love Thee?" Here one finds the perfect synthesis of Elizabeth's religious ardor, spiritual love, and personal devotion to a subject, which Poe implied made all the difference in her poetic writings. This paper will analyze Elizabeth Barrett Browning's style of writing and use of language to show how she incorporated religious and spiritual themes into personal expressions of love and devotion.

Poe states that Barrett's "Cry of the Children" is "full of a nervous unflinching energy -- a horror sublime in its simplicity -- of which a far greater than Dante might have been proud" (127). This is high praise from the American poet of the macabre and the Gothic who sought to achieve no less than that quality he thus attributes to Miss Barrett. An examination of her poem "The Cry of the Children" reveals the quality Poe perceives in her writing. The poem consists of 13 stanzas of 12 lines each, with a simple ABAB rhyme scheme. The "nervous energy" which Poe describes is discernible in the subject, style and language Barrett uses.

It begins with an ominous question, "Do you hear the children weeping, O my brothers, / Ere the sorrow comes with years?" (1-2). The question follows with a depiction of desperation that seems to suggest there is no answer for the suffering she is about to depict: "They are leaning their young heads against their mothers, / and that cannot stop their tears" (3-4). Suffering, of course, was something Elizabeth new much about, afflicted as she was in health. Thus, it is easy to see how she could take the subject of this poem to heart and give it that "self-interest" which Poe stipulated made her verses truly great. When she could relate in a personal way to the subject, she could infuse into her verses a much more animated and lively quality. Here the quality is one of "nervousness," dread and horror.

The first stanza proceeds with a repetition of the word "young" -- six times from line 5 to 9. Elizabeth emphasizes the focus of the plight of the young, first depicting the "young lambs," then the "young birds" then the "young fawns…young flowers…" and finally "the young, young children" (9). The flora and fauna of the created world and doing as they should: lambs bleating, birds chirping, fawns playing, etc. But the children, Elizabeth laments, "are weeping bitterly!" (10). "They are weeping in the playtime of the others, / in the country of the free" (11-12), she emphasizes, drawing attention to the word "weeping" by repeating it in the eleventh line. Thus, Elizabeth uses repetition in order to build suspense and move towards a kind of mini-climax in the stanza's narrative. The young lambs, young birds, young fawns, young flowers, etc. are happy and content -- but not (comes the shattering counter-point) the children!

Elizabeth also uses repetition of consonant and vowel sounds in words for a particular flowing effect. One can find several examples of alliteration in the first stanza alone. The "ng" sound in "young" is repeated in "beating" which comes four syllables later. The "l" sound in "lamb" is repeating "in "bleating" as well; and so is the "mb" sound repeated in "bleating" and "meadows" and "birds" in the next line. The word "bleating" at the center (or heart) of line 5, coming very near to the center or heart of the stanza serves a special significance too: it serves first as an anchor for Elizabeth's use of assonance and consonance (the "ng," "l" "b" and "ea" sounds); it serves secondly as an audible representation of the religious symbol that is the Lamb. The Lamb in Christian symbology is connected to the sacrificial Christ -- the pure and innocent Savior Who suffers for mankind (Sill 22). This poem is about the sufferings of children, who are (in a sense) by their very nature pure and innocent. Therefore it is a fitting image and word. Here one sees the "mileage" that Elizabeth can get out of a single a term such as "bleating," its position in the line and in the stanza and its alliterate relationship to the other words around it. One may also see the way Elizabeth deftly but subtly intertwines a significant religious theme with a poem's subject. Here, suffering takes on a religious dimension almost without the reader realizing it and without the author overtly drawing attention to it. But the placement of the image (the lamb) and its bleating in a stanza on the weeping of children signifies an artist and stylistic touch that carries great weight. Moreover, Elizabeth's repetitious use of language in the stanza shows that there is an undercurrent of chant-like rhythm the lines -- a vocal and mental movement that binds up all the component parts together, helping to connect the image of the lamb (which is "bleating") to the suffering of the children (who are "weeping").

Thus, it is clear how Elizabeth Barrett Browning uses words with utmost precision. But Poe is not completely praising in his review of Barrett's poetry. At times he sees her expressions as airy, meaningless and non-sensical: "What, for example, are we to think of 'Now he hears the angel voices / Folding silence in the room? -- ' undoubtedly, that it is nonsense, and no more" (Poe 131). Poe's criticism may be just or unjust -- and perhaps all it shows is that one cannot satisfy everyone at all times. Elizabeth certainly found a great admirer of her verses in Robert Browning, who saw no such nonsense in the lines Poe pointed out for ridicule.

Perhaps Browning was more sympathetic to these airy, poetic expressions, seeing in them a light, gamesome, feminine touch that the brooding and melancholic Poe seems to have resisted. This touch is evident in Elizabeth's poem to Robert, "How Do I Love Thee?"

The sonnet has a rhyme scheme of ABBA CDDC EFEFEF. This is known as an envelope sonnet, similar to the Italian sonnet. It is a fitting format for Elizabeth's poem to her husband, as it may be considered a love letter, in which the form of the poem acts like the material (the envelope) that normally carries letters from one to another. Here, Elizabeth wraps her personal sentiments in a poetic envelope and delivers it to her husband. The subject of the letter being personal, it is not surprising that it should be full of such life, as Poe suggests.

Elizabeth describes her devotion to her husband in what at first appear to be mathematical terms -- an odd choice for poem about love, which one would think is more spiritual or abstract than mathematical. But there it is: Elizabeth states in the first line: "Let me count the ways." Then she adds, "I love thee to the depth and breadth and height / My soul can reach" (2-3). Depth, breadth and height are geometrical terms, and being so, Elizabeth moves to a geometrical (or architectural image): "I love thee to the level of every day's / Most quiet need" (5-6). Every builder will be familiar with the purpose of a "level," which allows the builder to see that things are balanced. Here, Elizabeth asserts with a single word (again, like "bleating") that love and life must be balanced like a well-ordered and well-constructed house.