Elizabeth Barrett was already an established poet in 1844 when a volume of her work Poems was published. Robert Browning, who was still a promising but struggling poet at the time, wrote to her expressing admiration for her work. They met in May 1845 and, following a passionate but (due to objections from her father) secret courtship, eloped to Italy in September 1846. The couple exchanged nearly six hundred letters during the courtship, but the sonnets were a private record Elizabeth kept of her feelings and the progress of their relationship. When she finally shared them with Robert three years after their marriage, he declared the sonnets the best since Shakespeare's and encouraged her to publish them.
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| - Sonnets from the Portuguese
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| - Elizabeth Barrett was already an established poet in 1844 when a volume of her work Poems was published. Robert Browning, who was still a promising but struggling poet at the time, wrote to her expressing admiration for her work. They met in May 1845 and, following a passionate but (due to objections from her father) secret courtship, eloped to Italy in September 1846. The couple exchanged nearly six hundred letters during the courtship, but the sonnets were a private record Elizabeth kept of her feelings and the progress of their relationship. When she finally shared them with Robert three years after their marriage, he declared the sonnets the best since Shakespeare's and encouraged her to publish them.
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| - Elizabeth Barrett was already an established poet in 1844 when a volume of her work Poems was published. Robert Browning, who was still a promising but struggling poet at the time, wrote to her expressing admiration for her work. They met in May 1845 and, following a passionate but (due to objections from her father) secret courtship, eloped to Italy in September 1846. The couple exchanged nearly six hundred letters during the courtship, but the sonnets were a private record Elizabeth kept of her feelings and the progress of their relationship. When she finally shared them with Robert three years after their marriage, he declared the sonnets the best since Shakespeare's and encouraged her to publish them. The sonnets chronicle the poet's emotional journey as she goes through a transformation from a middle-aged invalid resigned to her melancholy existence to a grateful and confident woman with a hopeful future. At first, she holds herself back in hesitation, feeling unworthy of her attractive young suitor (Robert was six years her junior and worldly whereas the frail Elizabeth spent her days confined to her rooms). As the romance grows, however, she comes to fully appreciate the depth of his feelings for her. The strength of the love eventually helps her overcome her insecurities and realize her own worth. In the end, she offers her love to him, not as a desperate admirer but as an equal partner in an enduring relationship. The title of the collection refers to the pet name Robert Browning gave Elizabeth, "my little Portuguese" (he thought she looked Portuguese with her dark complexion) and also honors the Portuguese poet Luís de Camões whose sonnets Elizabeth admired. It is also believed that the couple deliberately selected the ambiguous title to disguise the poems as translations because of their autobiographical and intensely private nature. Sonnets from the Portuguese is best known for its penultimate poem "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." which has appeared in many anthologies as a stand-alone sonnet.
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