Sonnets From the Portuguese, Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Sonnets From the Portuguese, Elizabeth Barrett Browning
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Sonnets From the Portuguese

Author: Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Narrator: Adriel Brandt

Unabridged: 38 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Adriel Brandt

Published: 05/19/2021


Synopsis

Not just a collection of poems written in the same form and genre but a flowing and intimate portrait of love given and received, "Sonnets From the Portuguese" is perhaps poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning's most well-known work. This intimate and evocative publication that transcends meter and rhyme is brought to unique life in this audiobook by Adriel BrandtThe immense honesty, humble gratitude, and deep affection present in this work reveal the profundity not only of the poet's love, but also of the power of the love she received. Barrett Browning, who was disabled early in life by terrible migraines and spinal pain, reveals in her poems how love inspired her to embrace life—love, in her case, received from her husband for whom this collection was written.Whether you are loved most deeply by a partner, a relative, or a friend, may you know love that empowers you as Barrett Browning was empowered by the love she makes so tangible in these poems.Why is this male narrator reading intimate poems written by a woman for her spouse? In bringing this profound collection of poems to life, Adriel Brandt lends his soft baritone to perhaps the only place where the male voice is not aggressively dominant; indeed, where it is, maybe, too quiet: a place of humility, sensitivity, and reflective adoration. The longevity and ubiquity of this work speaks to its transcendence of its audience of one, to begin with, and when he revisited the work for this project, Brandt found that Barrett Browning gave voice to what had been uncommunicable in his own soul. What had been a woman's interior adulations, then love letters for a husband, then a publication read by millions, became the poetry of his own condition—once more, and always, personal: an intimate communication of profoundest love. 

About Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) is generally considered the greatest of English poetesses. She was well educated for a woman of her time at home, being confined to bed by a lung complaint, possibly tuberculosis. The appearance of her Poems in 1844 attracted the attention of Robert Browning, who courted her in secret before eloping with her to Italy. There Elizabeth’s health improved and she threw herself into politics, becoming a pioneer of early liberal movements.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Sreena on August 16, 2023

"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." The above verses are from sonnet 43, one of the most famous sonnets from the collection and also my personal favorite. Which em......more

Goodreads review by Daisy on January 10, 2023

Some great love affairs of the past produced great works of art, Keat’s letters to Fanny Brawne, the Taj Mahal, Kahlo’s The Embrace of the Love of the Universe and these sonnets written from Elizabeth Barrett Browning to her beloved Robert. ”If thou must love me, let it be for nought Except for l......more

Goodreads review by Jon on February 03, 2025

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." - Sonnet #43 - read this with your lover...have a 'How do I love thee?' poetry night...instead of the same old "movie night...this would be a great Valentines Day gift to give to your significant other - because it is the best poetic example I have ever r......more

Goodreads review by persephone ☾ on January 22, 2022

The face of all the world is changed, I think, Since first I heard the footsteps of thy soul when is it my turn to be happy ? 😭......more

Goodreads review by Jesús on July 17, 2023

"Yo que buscaba a Dios te encontré a ti" Realmente me encantó y sorprendió este poemario. No por nada para muchos la autora es considerada la mejor poetisa de Inglaterra. El título de la obra obedece probablemente a la influencia de Camoens o a la famosa obra francesa "Cartas de una religiosa portugu......more