Sonnet 29 – I think of thee!
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Relationship:
Context
EBB was an invalid, and wrote love letters and poems
to Robert Browning (who wrote Porphyria’s Lover!)
When they married, her family disowned her.
Parted lovers; the woman writing a response to the
man’s implied question “Do you think of me?”
Language:
Imagery of nature
“My thoughts do twine and bud/about thee, as wild vines about a tee
“the straggling green that hids the wood” The speaker’s often the
climbing vine or leafy branch, with her lover being the strong tree trunk –
maybe reference to her illness and feeling dependent on him for support.
Suggest the wildness of her thoughts becoming passionately uncontrolled
when she thinks of her lover.
Exclamative: “I think of thee” and “Who art dearer, better!” both show
intensity of feeling and the desire of the speaker to let her listener know
how wrong he is to be insecure.
“Burst, shattered, everywhere” – relating to the bands of greenery around the
tree; throw off the difficulties of their relationship – she wants to see him in
person
Religion or virility? Does the “set thy trunk all bare” with its link to the “palm
tree” suggest religion – the palm tree’s often used ceremonially, especially as
Jesus enters Jerusalem. Or is she suggesting she wants to see his body?
FORM AND STRUCTURE
 Sonnet – traditional love
poem. EBB wrote these
privately to Robert Browning,
not intending to publish them
– so they’re more intimate.
 Speeds up at “seop heavily”
increasing the sense of
passionate feeling, creates
movement, motion and noise
 Caesura throughout 
breathlessness
Great to compare:
The Farmer’s Bride
(passionate, romantic)
Neutral Tones
Natural imagery
Porphyria’s Lover
(passionate, subversive)
my thoughts do twine and bud
About thee, as wild vines,
about a tree,
Language
of nature
The wild passion of her thoughts,
the naturalness of them, the way
that she feels dependent on him.
Too passionately in love to
think straight / being near
him makes her unable to
think properly. Repeated
caesura.
I do not think of thee – I am too near thee.
Movement – drop,
burst, shatter -noise
suggests strength of
passion
let these bands of greenery which
insphere thee / Drop heavily down, – burst,
shattered, everywhere!
Caesura 
breathlessness