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Sonnets from the Portuguese

by Elizabeth Barrett BROWNING (1806 - 1861)

Thou comest! All is said without a word

Sonnets from the Portuguese, written ca. 1845–1846 and first published in 1850, is a collection of forty-four love sonnets written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The poems largely chronicle the period leading up to her 1846 marriage to Robert Browning. The collection was acclaimed and popular even in the poet's lifetime and it remains so today. Elizabeth was initially hesitant to publish the poems, feeling that they were too personal. However, Robert insisted that they were the best sequence of English-language sonnets since Shakespeare's time and urged her to publish them. To offer the couple some privacy, she decided that she might publish them under a title disguising the poems as translations of foreign sonnets. Therefore, the collection was first to be known as Sonnets from the Bosnian, until Robert suggested that she change their imaginary original language to Portuguese, probably after his nickname for her: "my little Portuguese." (Summary from Wikipedia)

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Listen next episodes of Sonnets from the Portuguese:
Because thou hast the power and own’st the grace , Beloved, thou hast brought me many flowers , First time he kissed me, he but only kissed , How do I love thee? Let me count the ways , I thank all who have loved me in their hearts , If I leave all for thee, wilt thou exchange , My future will not copy fair my past , Oh yes! they love all through this world of ours! , Pardon, oh, pardon that my soul should make , The first time that the sun rose on thine oath , When we first met and loved, I did not build , With the same heart, I said, I’ll answer thee , Yes, call me by my pet-name! Let me hear