APPENDICES
THE LADY’S YES
“Yes,” I answered you last night “No,” this morning, Sir, I say Colors seen by candlelight Will not look the same by day
When the tabors played their best, Lamps above, and laughs below Love me sounded like a jest Fit for Yes or fit for No
Call me false, or call me free Vow, whatever light may shine No man on your face shall see Any grief for change on mine
Learn to win a lady’s faith Nobly, as the thing is high Bravely, as for life and death With a loyal gravity
Lead her from the festive boards Point her to the starry skies
Guard her, by your truthfull words Pure from courtships’s flatteries
HOW DO I LOVE THEE
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 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
Elizabeth Barrett Browning Biography
Elizabeth Barrett Moulton-Barrett was born on 6 March 1806, in Coxhoe
Hall, between the villages of
parents were Edward Barrett Moulton Barrett and Mary Graham Clarke; Elizabeth
was the eldest of their 12 children (eight boys and four girls). All the children lived
to adulthood except for one girl, who died at the age of three when Elizabeth was
eight. The children in her family all had nicknames: Elizabeth was "Ba" to her
family. She rode her pony in the lanes around the Barrett estate, went with her
brothers and sisters for walks and picnics in the countryside, visited other county
families to drink tea, accepted visits in return, and participated with her brothers and
sisters in homemade theatrical productions. But, unlike her two sisters and eight
brothers, she immersed herself in the world of books as often as she could get away
from the social rituals of her family. She was baptized in 1809 at Kelloe Parish
Church, though she had already been baptized by a family friend in her first week of
life.
Some of Elizabeth Barrett's family had lived in Jamaica since 1655. The main
wealth of the household derived from Edward Barrett (1734–1798), landowner of
10,000 acres (40 km2) in
in northern Jamaica. Elizabeth's maternal grandfather owned sugar plantations, mills,
glassworks and ships that traded between Jamaica and Newcastle. Biographer Julia
Markus states that the poet 'believed that she had African blood through her
grandfather Charles Moulton'. There is no evidence to suggest that her line of the
Barrett family had any African ancestry, although other branches did, through the
genealogy in relation to Jamaica is unclear.The family wished to hand down their
name as well as their wealth, stipulating that Barrett should be held as a surname. In
some cases inheritance was given on condition that the name Barrett had to be used
by the beneficiary. Given the strong tradition, Elizabeth used 'Elizabeth Barrett
Moulton Barrett' on legal documents and before she was married often signed herself
as 'Elizabeth Barrett Barrett', or 'EBB' (initials which she was able to keep after her
wedding). Elizabeth's father chose to raise his family in England while his fortune
grew in Jamaica. The fortune of Elizabeth's mother's line, the Graham Clarke family,
also derived in part from slave labour, and was considerable.
She wrote poetry from her earliest years, but at the age of 20 she began to
interest wider literary circles. After the death of her mother in 1828, there followed
many years of suffering and misfortune with the deaths of brothers and a recurrence
of her illness. Family disputes, adverse trading conditions, and the end of slavery
reduced the Barretts' income so drastically that the stately home had to be sold. There
was, however, enough wealth left to support a very comfortable lifestyle in a
fashionable area of London, 50 Wimpole Street. Her reputation as a poet and critic
grew while she retreated to her sick room, unable to breathe in London's polluted air.
Then one day she allowed Robert Browning, as a fellow poet, to visit her—the rest,
as they say, is history.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was a highly esteemed poet in the nineteenth
century. Married to fellow poet Robert Browning, her fame and reputation surpassed
his – she was even a role model for Emily Dickinson herself. Browning grew up in a
wealthy household, which gave her the background and inspiration to write poems
The Lady’s Yes was written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and first published at year 1844. The Lady’s Yes opens with a woman taking back the yes she had given
to a gentleman suitor the night before. We find out in the second stanza that the
affirmative answer was given in response to the young man’s inquiry into whether
she loves him or not. However, the speaker says she has changed her mind because
Colours, seen by candle-light, Will not look the same by the day. The opportunity for love and the possibilities for her future that seemed so bright the night before dim by
the next morning, and she decides that no, she does not in fact love him. The speaker
was caught up in the atmosphere of the previous night, in the lamp light, the music
(the “tabors” mentioned are a type of drum), and the laughter surrounding them, and
agreed that she loved her suitor without thinking. Now she is dealing with the
repercussions, namely the risk of being called “fast” or “free,” both insults for those
who were considered ladies at the time. However, she says she does not regret
changing her mind, and even blames the suitor for catching her off guard, saying,
Timeto dance is not to woo, and that it is as much his fault as it is hers.
The second half of the poem consists of the speaker giving the gentleman
advice on how to really win over a lady. She tells him to be noble, brave, and loyal,
as these are all traits that ladies deserve. She also advises him to be truthful. This
implies that she does not feel that he was truthful with her. Caught up in the moment,
she believes they both said things they did not mean, so she warns him to speak
nothing but the truth to any future love interests, and not to focus so much on
“courtship’s flatteries.” With this truthfulness, she says, if another lady responds with
a yes to his love, she will actually mean it, unlike the speaker. Or perhaps she is even
How Do I Love Thee? is one of the most famous love poems in the English language. Because it's so famous, many readers mistakenly attribute the poem to that
master sonneteer,
centuries after Shakespeare – in fact, it's only been around for a little over 150 years.
Prominent Victorian poet
1850.
The poem was part of a sonnet sequence called
The title of the sequence is intentionally misleading; Barrett Browning implied to her
readers that these were sonnets originally written by someone else in Portuguese and
that she had translated them, whereas in reality they were her own original
compositions in English. ("My little Portuguese" was actually an affectionate
nickname that Elizabeth's husband used for her in private.) The sequence is
comprised of 44 sonnets, with How do I love thee? appearing in the striking position
of number 43, or second-to-last, making it an important part of the climax.
Most critics agree that Barrett Browning wrote the sonnets, not as an abstract
literary exercise, but as a personal declaration of love to her husband,
the sonnets is what led Barrett Browning to create an imaginary foreign origin for
them. But whatever the original motives behind their composition and presentation,
many of the sonnets immediately became famous, establishing Barrett Browning as
an important poet through the 19th and 20th centuries. Phrases from Barrett
Browning's sonnets, especially How do I love thee?, have entered everyday
conversation, becoming standard figures of speech even for people who have never
