There are fifteen poems in the GCSE Love and Relationships anthology.

For your exam, you will be given one poem in full, printed on the page, and you will be asked to compare this poem to another from the anthology.

All of the GCSE English Literature course is closed-book, meaning that you will need to learn at least three lines from each poem.

It is possible to get top marks for this question by making sure that you know the following:

• What the poem is about

• What the poem means

• The methods the poet uses to convey their message

• The links between the ideas of other poems in the anthology

Synopsis

This section includes:

• A general overview of the poem

• A detailed look at the poem line-by-line

• Analysis of the  poem, giving Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s intention and message

A General Overview of the Poem

"Sonnet 29 – I think of thee!" by Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning is part of a secret collection, thought to be written for Robert Browning. In this sonnet, the speaker reflects on her absent lover, expressing deep longing and a desire for his presence, while exploring themes of love and physical yearning.

Line-by-Line

I think of thee!—my thoughts do twine and bud

About thee, as wild vines, about a tree,

Put out broad leaves, and soon there 's nought to see

Except the straggling green which hides the wood.

The speaker begins by describing the speaker’s thoughts – the speaker compares these to vines around a tree, blocking the light as they grow bigger.

The poet uses an extended metaphor to compare her thoughts to the unrestrained growth that exists within nature.

The tree represents here lover – the tree here used to embody the strength and power of the lover.

There is a clear sexual connection between the two – as exemplified through vine and tree.

The description suggests her thoughts are out of control.

Yet, O my palm-tree, be it understood

I will not have my thoughts instead of thee

Who art dearer, better! Rather, instantly

There is a shift in tone – that explains that she prefers to have him physically with her than just imagining him.

The speaker shows an awareness that desire can be dangerous if not satisfied.

Renew thy presence; as a strong tree should,

Rustle thy boughs and set thy trunk all bare,

And let these bands of greenery which insphere thee

Drop heavily down,—burst, shattered, everywhere!

The speaker instructs her lover, asking him to return to her.

The final line of the stanza uses an effective tricolon to show that his presence would free them both of this desire – they would get what they both wanted.

Because, in this deep joy to see and hear thee

And breathe within thy shadow a new air,

The speaker uses sensory language to show that she wants him to return to her.

There is a clear connection between the two.

I do not think of thee—I am too near thee.

We learn that when he is with her, she does not think of him – because they are together.

The poem ends with a clear solution to the problem.

Writer’s Methods

This section aims to support your revision by providing you with concrete and clear examples of methods that Elizabeth Barrett Browning uses.

Remember: methods support meaning, not the other way round. You will gain more marks focusing your essays on the big ideas of the poems and then supporting these ideas with the methods that the writer uses.

Form

Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 29 – I think of thee! features a female speaker who openly expresses her longing for her absent lover. As a sonnet—a traditional form of love poetry—it challenges convention by presenting love from a female perspective, offering a unique and alternative view on romantic desire.

The poem follows the structure of a Petrarchan sonnet, a traditional 14-line Italian love poem. Barrett Browning adheres to the classic sonnet form, using it to convey intense emotions of romantic love, often associated with unrequited or frustrated desire.

However, unlike typical sonnets, the volta—a shift in tone or argument—occurs early, in line 5, rather than after the conventional eight-line octave. This early shift steers the poem away from dwelling on the complexities of distance in the relationship, instead presenting a more direct, rational solution. This deviation from tradition may suggest the speaker’s impatience for her lover’s presence or portray her as less emotionally restrained, challenging conventional Victorian expectations of women in love.

By subverting the traditional sonnet structure, Barrett Browning offers a female perspective on longing and desire, presenting romantic relationships as complex and deeply felt.

Structure

The poem largely follows the traditional structure of a sonnet but subverts expectations with deliberate irregularities, offering an alternative perspective. While it incorporates iambic pentameter—a typical feature of sonnets—Barrett Browning disrupts this rhythm throughout the poem, reflecting the speaker’s intense emotions and restless longing.

By breaking the conventional rules of the sonnet form, Barrett Browning conveys a sense of rebellion against strict societal expectations. She employs enjambment and caesura, creating an uneven rhythm that mirrors the speaker’s fluctuating emotions. The dramatic pause in “Drop heavily down,—burst, shattered, everywhere!” intensifies the speaker’s overwhelming passion and longing.

At times, the speaker’s tone is deeply emotional as she struggles to contain her desire. By the end of the poem, she returns to her thoughts, yet her final line contradicts the opening—she begins by thinking of him and ends by declaring she will not. This structural shift suggests she has resolved her inner conflict, concluding that reality is more fulfilling than mere imagination.

Through this unconventional approach, Barrett Browning challenges Victorian notions of romance and gender, presenting a female speaker who defies tradition by openly expressing intense physical desire.

Language

Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 29 – ‘I think of thee!’ employs an extended metaphor to compare love and longing to nature. As is typical in a sonnet, elevated language is directed toward an absent lover, conveying intense emotions within a romantic relationship. The speaker likens her feelings of longing to wild, tangled vines that wrap around a tree, symbolizing how her thoughts consume her in his absence.

The natural imagery suggests that her emotions are overwhelming, even suffocating, blinding her to clear thought. She describes her lover as a strong tree and urges him to “rustle thy boughs,” “drop” the leaves, and “bare” his trunk to “burst” and “shatter” the entanglement of her imagination. The use of auditory language and alliteration emphasizes the physical closeness she craves, suggesting that only his presence can bring relief.

This plea for release implies that physical connection will free her from the frustration of longing. The language carries sensual undertones, hinting at a deep, physical yearning that challenges conventional Victorian ideals of restrained female desire.

Barrett Browning reinforces the poem’s passionate tone through elevated, archaic language, such as “thee” and “thy,” which lend a sense of devotion and purity. Traditional Petrarchan sonnets often idealize love as something sacred, and this exaltation is evident in the poem’s emphatic opening exclamation: “I think of thee!”

Through rich natural imagery and expressive language, Barrett Browning captures the intensity of longing and desire, suggesting that only the sensory experience of physical love can liberate the speaker from the confines of her thoughts.

Context

At MyEdSpace, we use this analogy to discuss context – ketchup, salt and chips.

If you ordered a portion of chips, and asked for salt, you wouldn’t then dump the salt into the corner of your chips and start dipping each individual chip into the salt.

When you put salt on your chips, you sprinkle it over, sparingly, so as to give a good coverage of salt across the chips as a whole. Context is just like salt on chips.

Context is not ketchup – because it would be appropriate to squeeze ketchup into the corner of your plate and dip each chip in (and in fact, that is advised).

So when you’re including contextual information in your essays, sprinkle it across the essay, just like you sprinkle salt on your chips.

Let’s link the context to the key ideas and themes of the poem.

Romantic Relationships

"Sonnet 29 – I think of thee!" by Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning was written within the context of a patriarchal British society, where women’s relationships were often dictated by male authority. Fathers had control over their daughters’ romantic decisions, and society upheld ideals of respectability, restraint, and adherence to strict codes of conduct in love and marriage.

Barrett Browning’s own father forbade her from marrying Robert Browning, forcing their relationship to remain secret, sustained largely through letters. The sonnets, believed to be written for Robert, were not revealed until after their marriage, as their content would have been considered scandalous. Her decision to marry him against her father’s wishes led to her being disowned, highlighting both the poet’s defiance and the rigid expectations of Victorian society.

In this context, the poem—part of a collection of intimate sonnets—reflects the complexities of their relationship. Traditionally, sonnets were written by male poets, often exploring unrequited or imbalanced love. Barrett Browning subverts this convention by writing from a female perspective, asserting control as the speaker commands her lover to come to her.

This reversal challenges gender norms that expected women to be coy and restrained in matters of love. Instead, the speaker presents a clear, rational solution to the frustration caused by longing, portraying herself as emotionally self-aware rather than ruled by irrational passion. In doing so, Barrett Browning defies Victorian perceptions of women as incapable of logical thought, asserting a female voice that embraces both desire and agency.

Desire

Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 29 – I think of thee! was written in a period when British society repressed female sexuality and expected women to express restraint in matters of love. The poem challenges these gender norms by presenting a speaker who openly conveys intense emotions—feelings that were often discouraged, particularly among upper-class women.

The speaker expresses both excitement and frustration, longing for the physical presence of her lover. Through exclamations and sensory imagery, she conveys emotions traditionally associated with male speakers in love poetry, subtly commenting on restrictive gender expectations.

Her reference to the physical release from the torment of her tangled thoughts suggests an unrestrained, passionate woman, defying societal ideals of female modesty. In doing so, Barrett Browning presents a female voice that embraces desire, challenging Victorian conventions of romance and gender roles.

Comparison

You are required to write an essay in your exam that is a comparison of the ideas and themes explored in two poems from the Love and Relationships anthology. Therefore, it is very important to revise the poems in pairs and to enter the exam with an idea of what poem you will choose to compare once you know what the named poem is.

'Sonnet 29 ‘I Think of Thee!' and ‘Porphyria’s Lover'

Both Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 29 – I think of thee! and Robert Browning’s Porphyria’s Lover explore the intensity of desire and the speaker’s emotional response to it. However, while Barrett Browning’s speaker channels these powerful feelings into a rational solution—seeking the physical presence of her lover to ease her restless thoughts—Browning’s speaker is consumed by obsessive, irrational love. His response is delusional and ultimately destructive, revealing a dangerous inability to process desire in a healthy or logical way.

Similarities:

Both poems explore the difficulties we face when feeling desire.

Barrett Browning’s speaker longs intensely for the physical presence of her lover, and this overwhelming desire is reflected in the disrupted rhythm of the sonnet. The use of enjambment, exclamations, and caesura conveys the depth of her emotions: “I think of thee!—my thoughts do twine and bud/About thee, as wild vines, about a tree.”

The poem, written as a first-person dramatic monologue, presents a passionate lover consumed by longing. Enjambment creates a sense of instability, mirroring the speaker’s restless thoughts. The repetition of “And” emphasizes the obsessive nature of her yearning, much like how a mind in love continuously circles back to the same thoughts.

However, despite this emotional intensity, the speaker ultimately regains control. The volta in line 5 signals a shift in perspective, as she rationally acknowledges the danger of excessive fantasizing: “Yet, O my palm-tree, be it understood/I will not have my thoughts instead of thee.” This moment of self-awareness grounds the poem, showing that while desire may be overwhelming, it does not completely consume her.

Similarly, in Porphyria’s Lover, the speaker exhibits both obsessive emotions and moments of composure. His rational tone is underscored by caesura as he calmly narrates the moment of control: “And strangled her. No pain felt she;/I am quite sure she felt no pain.”

Both poems explore the complexities of desire, depicting speakers who fluctuate between emotional intensity and composed self-awareness, revealing the tension between passion and control in romantic longing.

Differences:

Sonnet 29 explores physical love in relationships whereas Browning explores the way physicality can lead to destruction.

In Sonnet 29, the speaker compares her lover to a strong, grounded tree, whose physical presence will relieve the tension of her overwhelming thoughts and restore harmony: “O my palm tree.” Her longing is expressed through natural imagery, where love is depicted as something organic and life-giving.

In contrast, Porphyria’s Lover presents nature in disharmony, reflecting the speaker’s own dark and cold emotions. The stormy setting mirrors his internal turmoil, creating a stark contrast to Porphyria’s warmth and affection.

Barrett Browning’s speaker openly expresses her longing, urging her lover to “Renew thy presence” and “Rustle thy boughs” so she can be freed from the burden of waiting. She desires physical unity over restless, tangled thoughts: “I will not have my thoughts instead of thee.”

However, in Porphyria’s Lover, the speaker remains unmoved by his lover’s closeness: “And, last, she sat down by my side/And called me. When no voice replied.” Unlike Barrett Browning’s speaker, who craves physical togetherness, Browning’s speaker isolates himself in his own thoughts, preferring his distorted perception of love over real emotional connection. He does not respond to Porphyria’s affection but instead deliberates on his own desires as she seduces him, ultimately taking control in a shocking and violent way.

While Barrett Browning’s speaker seeks fulfillment through love and presence, Browning’s speaker remains trapped in his delusions, choosing dominance and obsession over mutual intimacy.