Sonnet 29 – ‘I think of thee!' (AQA GCSE English Literature)

Each poetry anthology at GCSE contains 15 poems, and in your exam question you will be given one poem - printed in full - and asked to compare this printed poem to another. As this is a closed-book exam, you will not have access to the second poem, so you will have to know it from memory. Fifteen poems is a lot to revise. However, understanding four things will enable you to produce a top-grade response:

• The meaning of the poem
• The ideas and messages of the poet 
• How the poet conveys these ideas through their methods
• How these ideas compare and contrast with the ideas of other poets in the anthology

Below is a guide to Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem 'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’, from AQA's GCSE English Literature Love and Relationships anthology. It includes:

• Overview: a breakdown of the poem, including its possible meanings and interpretations
• Writer’s Methods: an exploration of the poet’s techniques and methods
• Context: an exploration of the context of the poem, relevant to its themes
• What to compare it to: ideas about which poems to compare it to in the exam

In order to answer an essay question on any poem it is vital that you understand what it is about. This section includes:

• The poem in a nutshell
• A ‘translation’ of the poem, section-by-section
• A commentary of each of these sections, outlining Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s intention and message

'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’ in a nutshell

'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’, written by the Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, is a sonnet which is part of a secret collection believed to be written for Robert Browning. The poem expresses the speaker’s thoughts about her absent lover and how she wishes for his presence; she explores longing and physical desire within romantic relationships.

'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’ overview

Lines 1-4

“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.”

Translation

• The poem begins by describing the speaker’s thoughts as if they are vines surrounding a tree which block the light as they grow bigger and broader 

Barrett Browning’s intention

• Barrett Browning compares her thoughts to nature’s wild and unrestrained growth 
• These thoughts almost consume the tree (which represents her lover)
• The physical closeness between vine and tree suggests a sensual, even sexual, connection
• The descriptions suggest her thoughts about her lover are out of control and untamed

Lines 5-7

“Yet, O my palm-tree, be it understood

I will not have my thoughts instead of thee

Who art dearer, better! Rather, instantly”

 

Translation

• The speaker shifts tone to explain to him that she prefers his physical presence to thinking about him
• The speaker addresses her listener as a tree to further connect nature with her thoughts

Barrett Browning’s intention

• Here, the speaker suggests she is aware that thoughts of desire can be dangerous if not satisfied
• The speaker’s emotional exclamation explains how much better physical love is to longing

Lines 8-11

“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!”

Translation

• The speaker gives instructions to her lover and asks him to come back to her
• She asks him to free himself of all the ‘tangles’ of longing and let everything be clear again by shattering the dreams and fantasies 

Barrett Browning’s intention

• These lines suggest his presence would free them both of the restrictions of thoughts and longing

Lines 12-13

“Because, in this deep joy to see and hear thee

And breathe within thy shadow a new air,”

Translation

• Here, the speaker explains why she thinks he should return to her
• Her reason is sensory: she wants to see and hear him close to her

Barrett Browning’s intention 

• The speaker explains that a genuine, deep happiness will come from seeing and hearing her lover close to her, so much so it will be like a new experience
• Barrett Browning presents physical unity as sensual and exciting

Lines 14

“I do not think of thee - I am too near thee.”

Translation

• The speaker explains that if he is with her, she will not have to think of him

Barrett Browning’s intention

• Here, Barrett Browning ends the poem with a clear solution to the problem
• She explains that when they are physically together, she will not have to think of him and long for him

Although this section is organised into three separate sections - form, structure and language - it is always best to move from what the poet is presenting (the techniques they use; the overall form of the poem; what comes at the beginning, middle and end of a poem) to how and why they have made the choices they have.

Focusing on the poet’s overarching ideas, rather than individual poetic techniques, will gain you far more marks. Crucially, in the below sections, all analysis is arranged by theme, and includes Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s intentions behind her choices in terms of:

• Form
• Structure
• Language

Form

Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem presents a female speaker who expresses and explores her feelings of longing for her absent lover. 'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee' is a sonnet, a traditional love poem, although sonnets are not conventionally written by a female speaker. Therefore, the poem offers an alternative perspective to romantic love. 

Theme	Evidence	Poet’s intention
Complex relationships	The poem is a Petrarchan sonnet, an Italian love poem of 14 lines	Barrett Browning’s form is of a typical sonnet as she uses it to express intense emotions of romantic love, often regarding unrequited or frustrated love
	Unlike typical sonnets, this one has a volta in line 5 rather than after an octave of 8 lines	The speaker breaks tradition by offering a shift in tone early in the poem to focus on a more rational solution instead of the complex problem of the distance in their relationship: this could present the speaker as impatient for her lover’s presence, or less emotional, thus defying conventional Victorian views of women in love
	Barrett Browning presents complex romantic relationships by subverting a traditional form to offer a female perspective on longing and desire

Structure

The poem mostly follows the typical structure of a sonnet, but subverts tradition with irregularities to present an alternative viewpoint.

Language

Barrett Browning’s poem, Sonnet 29 - ‘I think of thee!’, uses an extended metaphor to compare love and longing to nature. As expected in a sonnet, elevated language is directed to an absent lover to present intense emotions in romantic relationships. 

Examiners repeatedly state that context should not be considered as additional factual information: in this case, it is not random biographical information about Elizabeth Barrett Browning or the Victorian era which is unrelated to the ideas in 'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’ The best way to understand context is as the ideas and perspectives explored by Barrett Browning in 'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’ which relate to love and relationships. This section has therefore been divided into two relevant themes that Barrett Browning explores:

• Complex romantic relationships
• Desire and longing

Complex romantic relationships

• 'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’, by Victorian poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, was written in  the context of a patriarchal, British society:
• Fathers had control over decisions regarding their daughters’ relationships
• Society favoured relationships which were respectable, restrained and kept to a strict code of conduct
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s father forbade her from marrying Robert Browning which resulted in a secret relationship, based largely on secret letters 
• The poems were not shown until after her marriage to Robert Browning, as their content would be considered scandalous
• Barrett Browning’s parents disowned her after her marriage, illustrating the rebellious attitude of the poet and the strictness of her society
• In this context, the poem, as part of a collection of sonnets (allegedly written to Robert Browning), presents their complex relationship
• Barrett Browning’s poem is in the form of a sonnet, which were traditionally written by a male speaker about intense love, often unrequited and imbalanced
• The poem subverts traditions as it is written by a woman to a man
• The poem suggests the speaker has control: she instructs her lover to come to her 
• This challenges gender expectations which advocate coy, restrained females
• The poem presents a clear solution to the problematic emotions brought on by frustrated desire and complex love, suggesting a rational speaker
• This opposed perceptions within Barrett Browning’s patriarchal society wherein women were seen as incapable of logical thought.

Desire and longing 

• Barrett Browning‘s poem was written at a time when British society frowned upon and repressed female sexuality
• The poem subverts gender expectations as the speaker presents powerful emotions, frowned upon in upper-class British society
• Barrett Browning’s speaker is excited about love, and frustrated with the lack of physical presence in their relationship
• Her exclamations and sensory language present a female speaker with similar emotions to a man, commenting on gender expectations
• Her allusion to the physical nature of release from the agony of her tangled thoughts shows an unrestrained woman in love

The essay you are required to write in your exam is a comparison of the ideas and themes explored in two of your anthology poems. It is therefore essential that you revise the poems together, in pairs, to understand how each poet presents ideas about love or relationships, in comparison to other poets in the anthology. Given that Sonnet 29 - ‘I think of thee!’ explores the ideas of complex relationships, longing and desire, the following comparisons are the most appropriate:

• 'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’ and 'Porphyria’s Lover' 
• 'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’ and 'Love’s Philosophy' 
• 'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’ and 'The Farmer’s Bride'

For each pair of poems, you will find:

• The comparison in a nutshell
• Similarities between the ideas presented in each poem
• Differences between the ideas presented in each poem
• Evidence and analysis of these similarities and differences

'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’ and 'Porphyria’s Lover'

Comparison in a nutshell:

Both Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s 'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’ and Robert Browning’s 'Porphyria’s Lover' convey a speaker’s intense feelings as well as a sense of intention in their response to desire. However, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s narrator presents a solution to the complex emotions, while Robert Browning’s speaker is unable to think rationally and is delusional with jealous love.   

Similarities:

Topic sentence	Both poems suggest complex responses to feelings of desire
Evidence and analysis	'Sonnet 29 -  I think of thee!’	'Porphyria’s Lover'
	Barrett Browning’s speaker longs for the physical presence of her lover: the sonnet’s rhythm is disrupted with enjambment, exclamations and caesurae to present her overwhelming longing: “I think of thee!—my thoughts do twine and bud/About thee, as wild vines, about a tree”	Browning’s first person dramatic monologue presents a passionate lover experiencing intense desire: Enjambment presents an unstable narrator The repetition of “And” as he narrates the events of the night show his obsessive observation of her
	However, the speaker controls her emotions: the volta in line 5 suggests she has a rational awareness of the danger of too much fantasising: “Yet, O my palm-tree, be it understood/I will not have my thoughts instead of thee”	Browning’s speaker takes control of his emotions as he “debates what to do”: the caesura shows his calm tone, “And strangled her. No pain felt she;/I am quite sure she felt no pain”
	The complex emotions of desire are presented in both poems with speakers who are, at times, composed, and at other times, emotional and not in control

Topic sentence	Both poets convey intense emotions in romantic relationships
Evidence and analysis	'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’	'Porphyria’s Lover'
	The poem uses an extended metaphor which compares the speaker’s feelings of longing to the wild and tangled branches of vines around a tree, described as suffocating, blinding the speaker to clear thought: “Put out broad leaves, and soon there's nought to see”	Browning evokes nature’s power with personification to represent his own intense emotions: “The sullen wind” tears down tree-tops and did its worst to vex the lake”
	The speaker suggests her lover’s presence will release her from the agony of longing She describes her lover as a strong tree and asks him to “rustle thy boughs”, “drop” the leaves and “bare” his trunk in order to “burst” and “shatter” their tangled daydreaming	Browning’s speaker also connects Porphyria to nature, describing her love as warming the cottage and shutting out the cold and storm: “She shut the cold out and the storm,/And kneeled and made the cheerless grate”
	Both poets convey their strong feelings related to romantic love and desire with natural imagery

Differences:

Topic sentence	While Barrett Browning’s poem illustrates physical love as the way to harmony in relationships, Browning’s poem presents physical love as destructive
Evidence and analysis	'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’	'Porphyria’s Lover'
	The speaker compares her lover to a tree whose presence will physically release the tension of their frustrated thoughts and bring harmony: “O my palm tree”	In 'Porphyria’s Lover', the speaker describes disharmony within nature: the imagery connotes to his own dark and cold emotions
	The speaker asks her lover to “Renew thy presence” and “Rustle thy boughs” so that she can be relieved of longing	The closeness of Porphyria to the speaker does not seem to move him: “And, last, she sat down by my side/And called me. When no voice replied”
	The speaker prefers physical unity to what she describes as tangled and confusing thoughts: “I will not have my thoughts instead of thee”	The speaker here, however, prefers his thoughts to the presence of his lover: he does not reply to her call and he debates what to do as she seduces him
	Barrett Browning’s speaker is concerned with the physical unity of their love, rather than twisted thoughts, however Browning’s speaker chooses his own deluded thoughts
	Both poets challenge gender expectations within relationships, but Barrett Browning’s poem shows a liberated woman, while Browning’s shows one who is vulnerable and overpowered

'Sonnet 29 – I think of thee!’ and 'Love’s Philosophy'

Comparison in a nutshell:

This is an effective comparative choice to explore desire and longing within complex romantic relationships. Both Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s 'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’ and Shelley’s 'Love’s Philosophy' consider physical unity as a natural part of love, and present strong emotions when this is denied them. 

Similarities:

Topic sentence	Both poems show longing as a result of denied physical love in romantic relationships
Evidence and analysis	'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’	'Love’s Philosophy'
	Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s first-person speaker conveys strong  intense emotions in a romantic sonnet dedicated to a silent lover who is absent	Similarly, Shelley’s first-person speaker directly addresses a silent lover in a persuasive and romantic plea
	The speaker here conveys similar frustration with broken lines: “Drop heavily down,—burst, shattered, everywhere!”	Shelley’s speaker, too, is frustrated with longing: “What is all this sweet work worth/If thou kiss not me?”
	Elizabeth Barrett Browning uses natural imagery in an extended metaphor which connects the power of her feelings with the power of nature: “Renew thy presence; as a strong tree should”	Similarly, Shelley’s speaker personifies nature to present love as natural and full of desire:  The winds mix “for ever with a sweet emotion”, the mountains “kiss” the heavens and the waves “clasp” one another
	The poets comment on the overwhelming power of denied physical love within romantic relationships, by connecting nature with their feelings

Topic sentence	Both poems comment on physical love as unifying
Evidence and analysis	'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’	'Love’s Philosophy'
	Barrett Browning’s poem comments on the solution to her desire and longing as physical and sensory unity: “Because, in this deep joy to see and hear thee/And breathe within thy shadow a new air”	Shelley’s speaker, too, argues that it is a law of nature to come together in unity: “Nothing in the world is single”
	Both poems present physical love as natural and the answer to the painful emotions of longing and frustrated desire

Differences:

Topic sentence	While Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s speaker presents a hopeful and positive resolution, Shelley’s speaker is left without an answer
Evidence and analysis	'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’	'Love’s Philosophy'
	Barrett Browning begins describing her fantasies and thoughts as tangled like vines around a tree, but by line 5 she breaks conventions of the sonnet form with a volta and begins to present the solution	Shelley’s speaker, however, presents an argument throughout the poem, with two mirroring stanzas which end with rhetorical questions
	The speaker answers her own question, ending with a sense of resolution: “I do not think of thee - I am too near thee”	Shelley’s speaker ends his poem without resolution, and still frustrated: “What is all this sweet work worth/If thou kiss not me?”
	Both poems express passion in a frustrated relationship, however the speaker in Sonnet 29 - ‘I think of thee!’ ends the poem with a decision to be together and the speaker in Love’s Philosophy is left alone

'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’ and 'The Farmer’s Bride'

Comparison in a nutshell:

Both Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s 'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’ and Charlotte Mew’s 'The Farmer’s Bride' convey powerful feelings of desire within frustrated romantic relationships. However, Barrett Browning’s poem shows physical harmony as a resolution and Mew’s ends only with relentless, unresolved longing.

Similarities:

Topic sentence	Both poems highlight the intense emotions of frustrated love in romantic relationships
Evidence and analysis	'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’	'The Farmer’s Bride'
	The first-person speaker in Barrett Browning’s poem illustrates her frustrated thoughts and feelings with simile describing nature as untamed: “—my thoughts do twine and bud/About thee, as wild vines, about a tree”	Similarly, Mew’s speaker compares his frustrated desire with nature The farmer believes his bride to be too wild and untameable: “Sweet as the first wild violets, she,/To her wild self. But what to me?”
	The speakers evoke natural imagery to suggest frustrated love is uncontrollable
	Barrett Browning’s speaker expresses her frustration with exclamations and caesurae: “I will not have my thoughts instead of thee/Who art dearer, better! Rather, instantly”	Mew’s speaker’s frustration about his lover is similarly expressed: He uses caesurae and punctuation to present his longing: “Betwixt us. Oh! my God! the down”
	The poets both comment on the frustration of thwarted desire to be close to their lover by creating speakers with unstable voices

Similarities:

Topic sentence	Both poets present speakers with intense desire for physical love
Evidence and analysis	'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’	'The Farmer’s Bride'
	The first-person speaker uses sensory language to suggest her lover’s physical presence will bring her relief She calls on her lover to “Rustle thy boughs and set thy trunk all bare”	Mew’s speaker’s frustration about his lover is similarly expressed: “The brown of her—her eyes, her hair, her hair!”
	Barrett Browning’s speaker expresses her desire to be close to her lover with assertions about the distance between them: “I will not have my thoughts instead of thee”	The farmer, similarly, is aware of the barrier of distance: “Tis but a stair/Betwixt us”
	The poets both comment on the desire to be close to their distant lover, presenting their need for physical intimacy

Differences:

Topic sentence	While both poets explore the desire for physical love, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem presents a speaker longing to be with an absent lover within a consenting and harmonious relationship, while Charlotte Mew’s poem depicts a speaker’s longing and desire within a disharmonious, forced relationship
Evidence and analysis	'Sonnet 29 - I think of thee!’	'The Farmer’s Bride'
	Barrett Browning’s speaker directly addresses her absent lover, instructing him to be with her with imperative verbs: “Renew thy presence”	However, Mew’s speaker presents the distance between he and his lover differently: here, the speaker and his lover do not talk and he has hardly heard her speak
	Barrett Browning’s speaker ends the poem with a sense of physical harmony: “I am too near thee”	Mew’s poem, however, presents the farmer’s continued longing as a result of their lack of communication and his violent actions toward her She is “Alone, poor maid” and he wishes for the “soft young down of her”
	Barrett Browning’s poem presents a female speaker within a harmonious and consenting relationship, whereas Mew’s poem illustrates the painful distance within a forced relationship from the perspective of a male speaker