“SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE”: UNDERSTANDING THE CHANGES IN THE SEQUENCING

Abstract

Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Sonnets from the Portuguese” were reprinted three times during her lifetime. Although minor changes were made in the first two reprints, the third reprint in 1856 saw major alterations, the most important being the addition of Sonnet XVII as Sonnet XLII. Using a new historicist approach, this essay seeks to closely study the effects of these alterations by examining the critical reception of the poems as well the letters exchanged between Barrett Browning and Robert Browning during the time the sonnets were written. The poems are also considered in the context of the other poems in this volume with a view to understanding the reasons for the alterations in the sonnet sequence and what effects, if any, there were on the overall interpretation of the poems.