Sonnet 29 - ‘I think of thee’
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Poem: Sonnet 29 - ‘I think of thee’, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1850
I think of thee!—my thoughts do twine and bud
About thee, as wild vines, about a tree,
Put out broad leaves, and soon there 's nought to see
Except the straggling green which hides the wood.
Yet, O my palm-tree, be it understood
I will not have my thoughts instead of thee
Who art dearer, better! Rather, instantly
Renew thy presence; as a strong tree should,
Rustle thy boughs and set thy trunk all bare,
And let these bands of greenery which insphere thee
Drop heavily down,—burst, shattered, everywhere!
Because, in this deep joy to see and hear thee
And breathe within thy shadow a new air,
I do not think of thee—I am too near thee.
Meaning of Poem:
• Speaker addresses poem to lover and explains that their thoughts about them are like a
vine twisting about a tree to the point that there are so many vines (thoughts) that you can
no longer see the tree anymore;
• The speaker then clarifies that they would prefer to have their lover in real life, rather
than just their thoughts about them;
• They then ask the lover to move away all of their thoughts and come to them in real life.
• The speaker then explains that, because of the deep joy that they will feel when they see
each other, they won’t need to think of/imagine their lover because they will be near each
other.
Context:
• Sonnet 29 was written for Barrett Browning’s husband, fellow poet Robert Browning. Like
her husband, she usually avoided personal poetry, and she originally wrote the poem only to
be read by her husband, but he eventually persuaded her to publish it and others in her
collection;
• Barrett Browning was one of England’s most famous poets during her lifetime and known for
her moral and emotional passion and her energetic engagement with social issues;
• Barrett Browning had lived the first 39 years of her life as a semi-invalid in semi-seclusion
due to her ill health and her tyrannically protective father. Robert Browning would visit her
and he eventually ‘rescued’ her and they eloped to marry in secret in Italy.
Main Themes:
• Love from afar
• Love in the mind
Language
Quotation
Technique
Effect
‘twine and bud/ About thee,
as wild vines, about a tree’
Extended
metaphor
of vine
The tree and vine were seen by Latin authors (and
others since) as symbols of marriage because the
tree supports the vine.
‘Thee..thee.tree…leaves…see…
green…tree…thee…instantly…
tree…greenery…deep…thee…
thee…breathe…thee…thee’
Repetition
and
assonance
Assonance and repetition of ‘thee’ sound conveys how
the speaker cannot escape her thoughts of ‘thee’ reinforces the opening exclamation of ‘I think of
thee!’
Straggling v.s. strong…all
bare…drop heavily down, burst, shattered’
Imagery of The addressee is linked to images of strength, whilst
strength
the thoughts of the speaker are ‘straggling’ and weak.
Conveys the power of love experienced in real life, as
opposed to in the imagination.
Language
Quotation
Technique
Effect
soon there’s nought to see…
bands of greenery which
insphere thee…
Renew…breathe…new air
Imagery of Conveys the thoughts as suffocating and links the
suffocatio speaker’s meeting with their lover to a renewal or ren vs.
birth.
renewal
Palm-tree
Allusion
Burst'
Onomatopo Emphasises the strength taken to rid himself of the
eic plosive vines and the sense of freedom gained.
In Christianity, the palm is a symbol of Jesus’
resurrection and, therefore, re-birth and victory
over death.
Structure
Quotation
Technique
Effect
‘Rather, instantly/Renew thy
presence…’
Volta
The volta between the octet and the sestet marks a
change and the speaker’s movement towards an
emotional release. In this case, the release is
mirrored in the language as the tree is physically
released from the vines.
‘twine and bud/ About thee’
‘instantly/Renew thy presence’
‘And let these bands of
greenery which insphere thee/
Drop heavily down’
Enjambme
nt
Enjambment conveys movement of vines, immediacy of
the lover coming back to here and the movement of
the vines dropping down.
Form: Petrachan Sonnet
Technique
Effect
Petrachan sonnet form:
• 14 line poem in iambic pentameter
• Octave and a sestet
• Traditionally associated with love
• ABBAABBA CBCBCB rhyme
• The octave introduces a problem
or a desire and the sestet gives a
solution.
• Often makes use of a metaphor to
describe lover
By choosing the sonnet form, Barrett Browning selects a
romantic and intimate form. It is a very strict form and
works to contain her vine-like thoughts that cannot be
contained.
Lines 7, 10 and 14 have an extra
syllable: 11, rather than 10.
Demonstrates how her joy at having her lover near will be
uncontainable as it breaks out of the sonnet form. Extra
syllable on ‘instantly’ emphasises her desire for him to
appear.
Trochee of ‘Rustle’
Mirrors the tree’s movement of breaking itself free from
the vines as the work breaks free from the rhythm
Form: Petrachan Sonnet
Technique
Effect
Trochees in ‘Who art dearer, better!
Rather, instantly’
Trochees and dactyl (instantly) set line apart from rest of
poem and emphasise that the physical person of him is
different from her own thoughts.
Spondee of ‘Tree should’ and ‘deep
joy’
Emphasises the strength that the tree should show and the
strength of the deep joy.
Comparisons
Other Poem
Thematic
Comparison
Language/Structure/Form Comparison
Letters from
Yorkshire
Love from afar • Language
• Both use natural imagery to describe partner; however,
Main
whilst Dooley uses natural imagery to convey how
Similarity:
different her partner’s life is from her own and the
Poems both
physicality of Yorkshire compared to the ‘blank screen’,
describe how
Barrett Browning uses the extended metaphor of the
we can feel
tree to convey the abstract notion of love as embodied in
connected with
her husband.
people through • Images of nurture and re-birth. Again, Dooley’s
thoughts.
description conveys how the partner is creating life in
the world, whilst for Barrett Browning it is a direct
Main
renewal for the speaker.
Difference:’Le • Structure
tters from
• ‘Letters from Yorkshire’ is structured in such a way to
Yorkshire’ is
show the movement of time and the seasons (seeing the
about
seasons/turning) and the comparable steady continuation
communicating
of their relationship; however, the Petrachan sonnet
across
form of ‘Sonnet 29’ implies through the volta that there
contrasting
is a problem with the couple being separated and that it
lives, whilst
must be solved by the lover returning to the speaker.
Sonnet 29 is
• Form
about the
• ‘Letters from Yorkshire’ mirrors normal speech patterns
desire to see
to describe everyday normality: ‘It’s not romance, simply
someone again.
how things are’, whilst Barrett Browning uses the
contrived sonnet form to contain an excess of romantic
emotions.
Sample Exam Question: Compare how poets present distance in a relationship in ‘Sonnet 29’
and in one other poem from ‘Love and relationships’.
Sample Paragraph: ‘Sonnet 29’ and ‘Letters from Yorkshire’
Both Dooley and Barrett Browning use imagery of renewal and growth to overcome distance in
a relationship. In ‘Letters from Yorkshire’, Dooley’s metaphor of the man ‘pouring air and light
into an envelope’ implies that his written words feed her over a distance in the same way that
he might nourish a plant. Similarly, Barrett Browning’s request that her husband returns to
her through her extended metaphor of the ‘palm tree’ alludes to Jesus’ return to Jerusalem
where he gave new life to Christians through his re-birth. However, whilst in ‘Sonnet 29’, the
sestet marks the imagined moment when physical distance is overcome and the speaker is
renewed through being able to ‘breathe within the shadow of new air’, in ‘Letters from
Yorkshire’, the end of the poem conveys how the physical distance is retained and their
relationship continues to survive through messages sent across barren ‘icy’ miles.