THE VICTORIAN

PERIOD AND
SONNETS
 What do you
see in this
picture?
● What questions do you have in this picture?
● What do you think is the artist trying to say?
● How does this relate to the Victorian Period?
THE VICTORIAN PERIOD (1837-1901)

❑ Britain was the

world’s most
powerful
nation during
this period.
 THE VICTORIAN PERIOD (1837-1901)
❑ Scientific and
technical innovations
of the Industrial
Revolution and of
modern nationalism
refashioned both the
political and social
life in Victorian
England.
THE VICTORIAN PERIOD (1837-1901)
❑ In contrast to this
period’s time of great
ambition and
grandeur, it was also
a time of misery,
squalor, and urban
ugliness. (Raiyah,
2013)
The Victorian Period of English Literature (1837-1901)

The ascendancy of Queen Victoria

marked the beginning of the Victorian
Age.
• It was a time of contrast-- of prosperity
and poverty, of morality and depravity,
Literary works
and of peace and protest.
• It was characterized by rapid change and
tended to come
development. face-to-face
• It was considered the Golden Age of
English novel. with real.
• It was a fusion of romantic and realistic
type of writing
 The Victorian Period of English Literature (1837-1901)

❑ Some of the famous Victorian novelists and poets of the period are

❑ Alfred Lord
Tennyson
❑ Charles Dickens
(Adventures of (Ulysses) ❑ Emily Bronte
Oliver Twist) (Wuthering Heights)
 The Victorian Period of English Literature (1837-1901)

❑ Some of the famous Victorian novelists and poets of the period are

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

(Sonnets form the
Robert Browning (My Portuguese)
Last Duchess)
 VICTORIAN POETRY
❑ In 19th century Britain, poetry became as prestigious
as the novels primarily because of the advances in
literacy and publishing.

❑ It reached a wider audience and made a mark in

terms of its distinctive qualities:
1. 1. quite realistic in nature
2. 2. less idealized
3. 3. more focused on urban life
4. 4. highly pessimistic, and undeniably skeptic.
 VICTORIAN POETRY
❑ ☺ Use of sensory elements
was another obvious ➢ ☺ One of these highly
characteristics esteemed figures was
Elizabeth Barrett
➢ ☺ Imagery and senses to Browning whose sonnets
convey struggles and speak volumes about her
sacrifices were commonly reputation as a poet
used by eminent Victorian
poets.
 WHAT IS A SONNET?

❑ ☺ The word sonnet comes from the Italian

word sonetto which means “a little sound or
song.”

❑ ☺ It is a fourteen-line poem typically (or

usually) written in iambic pentameter. It
employs the use of rhyme schemes and
adheres to a structured theme.
 WHAT IS A SONNET?
There are two major types of sonnets.

● A. Petrarchan, the most common sonnet,

was named after the Italian poet, Petrarch.
● B. The second major type is the
Shakespearean or English sonnet which
follows a different set of rules.
SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES OF PETRARCHAN AND
SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET
☺ The similarity is that they both have 14 lines.

☺ The differences are mostly regarding form

and rhyme. Namely, Petrarchan sonnet has 14
lines, where the first 8 lines (or an "octave”)
has the rhyme scheme ABBA ABBA, and the
last 6 lines (or a sestet) has a varying rhyme
scheme, but usually CDECDE or CDC CDC.
SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES OF PETRARCHAN AND
SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET
☺ The similarity is that they both have 14
lines.

☺ On the other hand, a Shakespearean sonnet

also has 14 lines, which are divided into three
quatrains (4 lines) and one couplet (2 lines).
The rhyme scheme in the quatrains is ABAB
CDCD EFEF, and the final couplet GG.
 QUESTIONS TO PONDER!
Comparison and Contrast. Below are some of
the identified roles of women during the Victorian
Era. Choose one and discuss how these roles
changed over time.

1. Women could not vote and run for politics.

2. Married women could neither own nor handle
their own property.
3. Women had limited educational and
employment opportunities.
 KEY TAKEAWAYS
During the Victorian Period, Britain became
the wealthiest nation in the world, due to the
rapid and widespread expansion of the British
Empire.

Victorian literature deviated from “art for

art’s sake” and asserted its moral purpose.
SONNETS FROM
THE PORTUGUESE
BY ELIZABETH BARRETT
BROWNING
 ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
LOVE STORY OF ELIZABETH AND ROBERT BROWNING
 Sonnet 14 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
❑ If thou must love me, let it be for nought
❑ Except for love's sake only. Do not say,
❑ "I love her for her smile—her look—her way
❑ Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought
❑ That falls in well with mine, and certes brought ● *How many lines are
❑ A sense of pleasant ease on such a day"— there in a sonnet?
❑ For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may
❑ Be changed, or change for thee—and love, so wrought, ● *Which lines rhyme?
❑ May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
❑ Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry:
❑ A creature might forget to weep, who bore
❑ Thy comfort long and lose thy love thereby!
❑ But love me for love's sake, that evermore
❑ Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity
 Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Poems published in 1850 contained the famous Sonnets
from the Portuguese. She wrote them using the structure of the Petrarchan Sonnet.

What is Petrarchan Sonnet?

*It is a sonnet style named after one of its greatest practitioners, the Italian
poet, Petrarch.

*It is a fourteen-line poem that is divided into two stanzas.

*The octave or octet (first eight lines) is followed by the sestet (final six
line).

*The rhyme scheme for the octave is abba-abba. Sestet’s rhyme scheme
may include cde-cde, cdc-cdc, or cde-dce.

*A change from one rhyme group to another is called volta or turn. This is
often found in the 9th line of the sonnet.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Poems published in 1850 contained the famous Sonnets
from the Portuguese. She wrote them using the structure of the Petrarchan Sonnet.

Here’s a quick guide to identifying other sonnet patterns:

*Shakespearean Sonnet: abab-cdcd-efef-gg
Usually 14 lines, iambic pentameter

*Terza Rima Sonnet: aba-bcb-cdc-ded-ee

Often has a rhyming couplet at the end

*Spenserian Sonnet: abab-bcbc-cdcd-ee

● *In the Petrarchan sonnet, how
does rhyme control form?
● *How do you write an octave?
● *What about a sestet?
WHERE DID ENGLISH COME FROM?
 ARCHAIC WORDS
● The word ''archaic'' comes from a Greek word
meaning ancient or beginning.
WHO USE ARCHAIC WORDS
● Archaic words were used frequently during the Middle Ages and so Shakespeare's plays
are full of them. This makes them challenging for us to understand. In fact, you can even
take a class in high school or college that is solely focused on how to read and
understand Shakespeare's work. Let's take a look at the first part of his famous Sonnet 18
in Romeo and Juliet:
● Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
● Thou art more lovely and more temperate
● With archaic words like ''thee'' and ''thou,'' this can get a little tricky. In modern English,
Sonnet 18 might read something like this:
● Should I compare you to a summer's day?
● You are more lovely and more pleasant.
 VOCABS
• Nought – nothing; naught. If thou must love me, let it be for nought
Except for love's sake only. Do not say,
• Certes - assuredly; I assure "I love her for her smile—her look—her way
Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought
you. That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day"—
• Wrought - archaic past and For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may
past participle of work. Be changed, or change for thee—and love, so
wrought,
• Thine - archaic form May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
of yours; the thing or things Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry:
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
belonging to or associated
Thy comfort long and lose thy love thereby!
with thee. But love me for love's sake, that evermore
Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity
Sonnet 14 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
❑ If thou must love me, let it be for nought
❑ Except for love's sake only. Do not say,
❑ "I love her for her smile—her look—her way
❑ Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought
❑ That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
❑ A sense of pleasant ease on such a day"—
❑ For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may
❑ Be changed, or change for thee—and love, so wrought,
❑ May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
❑ Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry:
❑ A creature might forget to weep, who bore
❑ Thy comfort long and lose thy love thereby!
❑ But love me for love's sake, that evermore
❑ Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity
 ANALYSIS
“If thou must love me” by Elizabeth Barrett If thou must love me, let it be for nought
Browning is a Petrarchan or Italian Except for love's sake only. Do not say,
sonnet composed of an octave (two "I love her for her smile—her look—her way
groups of four Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought
lines), rhyming ABBAABBA, and That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
a sestet (two groups of three lines), A sense of pleasant ease on such a day"—
rhyming CDCDCD. For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may
Be changed, or change for thee—and love, so
wrought,
This sonnet is number fourteen of a set of May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
forty-four and comes from Browning’s Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry:
most popular volume of A creature might forget to weep, who bore
poetry, Sonnets from the Portuguese, first Thy comfort long and lose thy love thereby!
published in 1850. But love me for love's sake, that evermore
Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity
 ANALYSIS
‘If thou must love me’ by Elizabeth Barrett
Browning follows the pattern of a If thou must love me, let it be for nought
traditional Petrarchan sonnet and Except for love's sake only. Do not say,
declares the speaker’s intentions for how "I love her for her smile—her look—her way
Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought
she is to be loved. That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day"—
For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may
The poem begins with the speaker Be changed, or change for thee—and love, so
declaring that she does not wish to be wrought,
loved for any reason other than for love’s May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
own sake. She does not want her lover to Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry:
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
love her for her smile or the way in Thy comfort long and lose thy love thereby!
which their thoughts are similar, as these But love me for love's sake, that evermore
things are liable to change over time. She Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity
would rather not be loved, than to lose
love later in life.
 ANALYSIS
LINES 1 -5 If thou must love me, let it be for nought
Except for love's sake only. Do not say,
Browning begins this sonnet by "I love her for her smile—her look—her way
Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought
making the request that will make
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
up the basis of this poem. She asks A sense of pleasant ease on such a day"—
of her potential lover, if you are For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may
going to love me, don’t let it be for Be changed, or change for thee—and love, so
wrought,
any reason other than the fact that May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
you love me. She does not wish this Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry:
unnamed lover to care for her for A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long and lose thy love thereby!
any reason that could be called trite
But love me for love's sake, that evermore
or physical. She wants love for Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity
love’s sake and no other.
 ANALYSIS
LINES 1 -5

The speaker goes on to list the ways in which she does

If thou must love me, let it be for nought
not want her lover to justify his love for her. “Do not Except for love's sake only. Do not say,
say,” the speaker says, that you love me for my smile or "I love her for her smile—her look—her way
how I look. Or even, she states, “[my] way / Of Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought
speaking gently.” These are all traditional reasons a That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
man, especially one living during the early 1800s, as A sense of pleasant ease on such a day"—
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was, might state for feeling
“love.” She does not care for them. Her speaker sees
For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may
them as being cliché, common, and stereotyped. The Be changed, or change for thee—and love, so
speaker does not want to be defined by her looks or wrought,
female charm. May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry:
She concludes this stanza by stating that she does not A creature might forget to weep, who bore
want to be loved for any of these reasons, or just
because of their thoughts, “[fall] in well” together. It is
Thy comfort long and lose thy love thereby!
not a reason to be loved, simply because one’s thoughts But love me for love's sake, that evermore
are similar to another. She adds to this statement as she Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity
transitions into the next line.
LINES 6-9
ANALYSIS
If thou must love me, let it be for nought
The similarity of their thoughts, even though they, Except for love's sake only. Do not say,
“certes brought / A sense of pleasant ease,” or more
"I love her for her smile—her look—her way
simply, assuredly or certainly brought pleasure to their
time together, is still not a reason to be loved as, she Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought
continues, they may change. Not only may their That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
thoughts change, but so too might his opinion of her A sense of pleasant ease on such a day"—
smile, look, or “way / Of speaking gently.” These are For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may
mutable factors of her life and she knows they are no Be changed, or change for thee—and love, so wrought,
basis on which to build a relationship. May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
The speaker continues on to say that even if she changed Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry:
for him, “changed for thee” and worked hard for their A creature might forget to weep, who bore
love, “love, so wrought,” it still may be “unwrought” Thy comfort long and lose thy love thereby!
with the passage of time. If the two lovers do not find But love me for love's sake, that evermore
reasons to love one another rather than present-day Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity
surface-level pleasantries, then their love may be liable to
change over time. The speaker would rather not be loved
than risk this in the future.
 ANALYSIS
LINES 10-14
The last lines of this sonnet conclude the speaker’s If thou must love me, let it be for nought
ideas about love and restate her initial request. She Except for love's sake only. Do not say,
also voices another reason she does not wish to be "I love her for her smile—her look—her way
loved, for pity’s sake. Due to the fact that he has given Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought
her comfort in the past and she has heartily That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
appreciated it, she knows that over time she might
come to take that comfort for granted and forget the
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day"—
love it once engendered in her. This loss of recognition For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may
might make her lose his love for good. Be changed, or change for thee—and love, so
wrought,
The last lines of the piece are a reiteration of her entire May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
request. She wishes for her lover to love her for love’s Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry:
sake only, not anything else. This will ensure that
“Thou mayst love on” throughout all eternity.”
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long and lose thy love thereby!
She believes that if only they can come to a place in But love me for love's sake, that evermore
which their love is based on love alone and not Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity
dependent on any physical or mental
predilections, then it will last forever.
 KEY TAKEAWAYS
Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the
Portuguese consists of forty-four sonnets

The “14th Sonnet” is also known as “If Thou Must

Love Me.” It follows the Italian or Petrarchan form of
sonnet
SONNET
ANALYSIS
PAIR ACTIVITY
Create a visual representation (poster, drawing, or collage) that captures the emotions
and themes of the poem. Depict the poem's essence visually, emphasizing emotions,
key phrases, and symbolic elements. Write a 3-5 sentences explanation below.
Assigning of sonnet will be done through draw by lot.
Criteria Exceptional (5) Proficient (4) Basic (3) Limited (2) Inadequate (1)
Demonstrates exceptional Shows creativity but
Displays creativity with a Shows limited Lacks creativity and
creativity, offering a may rely on common
distinct and original creativity, with minimal originality, relying on
Creativity and Originality unique and original visual elements. The
approach, enhancing the originality in the visual conventional and
interpretation that goes interpretation is
visual representation. representation. predictable elements.
beyond expectations. somewhat expected.
Elicits a powerful Conveys some Fails to evoke a
Evokes a strong emotional
emotional response, emotional aspects, Attempts to convey meaningful emotional
response, effectively
Emotional Resonance effectively conveying the but the overall emotions but lacks response, missing the
capturing the sentiment of
complex emotions impact may be depth and resonance. emotional nuances of the
the poem.
embedded in the poem. somewhat subdued. poem.
Aligns exceptionally well Shows limited
Somewhat aligns
with the themes of the alignment with the Fails to align with the
Aligns well with the themes, with the themes but
poem, capturing its themes, missing themes, lacking a clear
effectively conveying the key may miss some key
essence with precision. significant aspects of connection to the poem's
Alignment with Themes and elements of the poem. elements.
Skillfully incorporates the poem. essence.
Symbolic Elements Successfully uses symbolic Includes some
symbolic elements that Attempts to Lacks appropriate or
elements to support the symbolic elements,
enhance the incorporate symbolic meaningful symbolic
visual representation. but their relevance
understanding of the elements but with elements.
may be unclear.
poem. limited effectiveness.
Demonstrates basic Presents a visually
Displays exceptional Shows competent
Exhibits good craftsmanship, craftsmanship, with unappealing
craftsmanship with a craftsmanship but
Craftsmanship and Presentation creating a visually pleasing noticeable representation with
polished and visually may lack some
representation. shortcomings in significant flaws in
appealing presentation. finishing touches.
presentation. craftsmanship.
Provides a
Offers a basic
comprehensive and Presents a Provides an inadequate
Offers a clear and well- explanation (3-5
insightful explanation (3-5 reasonable or unclear explanation (3-
articulated explanation (3-5 sentences) with limited
sentences) that eloquently explanation (3-5 5 sentences) that fails to
Explanation sentences) that effectively insight into the
connects the visual sentences) but may establish a meaningful
links the visual connection between
representation to the lack some depth or link between the visual
representation to the poem. the visual and the
poem's themes and clarity. and the poem.
poem.
emotions.
How do I love thee? (Sonnet 43)
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height.
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
POEM 1
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Sonnet 24 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Let the world’s sharpness, like a clasping knife,
Shut in upon itself and do no harm
In this close hand of Love, now soft and warm,
And let us hear no sound of human strife
After the click of the shutting. Life to life—
I lean upon thee, Dear, without alarm,
And feel as safe as guarded by a charm POEM 2
Against the stab of worldlings, who if rife
Are weak to injure. Very whitely still
The lilies of our lives may reassure
Their blossoms from their roots, accessible
Alone to heavenly dews that drop not fewer,
Growing straight, out of man’s reach, on the hill.
God only, who made us rich, can make us poor.
 KEY TAKEAWAYS
In analyzing sonnets, it is essential to identify
its type (Petrarchan), its structure (octave and
sestet), and its meaning.
Certain characteristics of sonnets make it a
real challenge that calls for one’s creativity
and technical skill.
THANK
YOU!