poems for Robert Browning

3½ stars. I might have appreciated these more when I was younger... ( )

some works of genius (though I do prefer more gritty poetry), and a lovely presentation by Heritage Press ( )

sonnets, love, death

A set of poems dedicated to her husband, Sonnets from the Portuguese traces the Brownings’ relationship through their courtship. From sonnet to sonnet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning confronts her loneliness, her sense of unworthiness, her fears of love’s vanishing, and slowly unfolds faith, gratitude, and the depth, strength, and fierceness of her love. Although I’m not much of a poetry reader, I found myself caught up in the language and rhythms and subject of this slim little volume. I’m certain I didn’t drink the poetry to the dregs, so to speak, in just my one, leisurely read, but I enjoyed myself enough that I believe I’ll want to revisit it someday. ( )