Grief By: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Alicia Feaster Period 7 Poetry Project

Poem #1

Poem #2

Biographical Information Barrett was the oldest of twelve in her family. Her family was pretty wealthy because her father owned sugar plantations in Jamaica. Since she was young she liked to read books, all the education she received was self taught or taught at home. She had published her first poem anonymously it was called “An Essay On Mind, With Other Poems” (1826). About two years after the poem was published Elizabeth’s mother died. Her brother also died while sailing at Torquay. Many years later she married Robert Browning (1846) and she had s son. She is sometimes called one of the greatest poets of the Victorian Era.

Grief 14 lines One Stanza End Rhyme The poem also uses approximate rhyme for some of the lines Italian Sonnet: first 8 lines pose a question and the last 6 lines provide an answer.

Imagery “Till itself crumble to the dust beneath” Connection might be about how she feels as if she is crumbling due to the death of her family and the debilitating disease that she struggled with her whole life. “Most like a monumental statue set” Connection might be about how she felt stuck because she was the oldest but her father wanted her to not get married but she wanted to leave.

Imagery “If it could weep, it could arise and go” Connection might be that with all the misery she had faced in her life she was never really able to let it go. If she was able to do something about what had happened she might have felt differently and be able to move on. “Beat upward to God’s throne in loud access” Connection might be how when people or things were taken away from her she would look up towards God to ask why it happened to try and get answers.

Literary Elements End rhyme: Every line in the poem has a pair B C D E F G End rhyme: Every line in the poem has a pair The first 8 lines have a rhyme scheme of A,B,B,A then the last 6 lines have a rhyme scheme of A,B,C This rhyme scheme shows that this poem is an Italian sonnet because the first 8 lines pose question; and the last 6 lines provide a solution.

Literary Elements A simile is stated when it compares the grief for someone who is dead to actual death itself. Sensory Details- the poem provides details in line 13 because you can feel the marble eyelids. It has approximate rhyme because some of the lines do not fully rhyme but have the same ending.

Speaker The speaker of this poem seems to be an adult looking back at what grief truly is. The speaker of this poem tells how someone feels while they are in a period of grief or depression. The speaker has experienced grief in their life and they are telling that if they were able to get rid of it they could move on.

Literal Meaning The literal meaning of this poem is that grief is a natural occurrence. This happens and people have to find a way to move forward and move on. Lines 1-2 tell the literal meaning of the poem because it states that grief has no passion and that it can cause despair to other people. Lines 8-9 tell the literary meaning of poem because man has grief in their life and it is hard for them to deal with. Line 6 tells the literary meaning because the grief being felt is felt in the soul of the person but they are fighting the grief silently without others knowing.

Figurative Meaning The figurative meaning of the poem is that she has felt the grief of losing her loved ones and she has had a hard to dealing with it. She says that you never really get over the grief but it sometimes subsides. Line 14 tells the figurative meaning because it tells that if you could cry about it, you would be able to move on but it is not always that simple. Lines 4-5 tell that whenever a person feels grief they want to know why it happened and how to move on through their pain. Line 12 tells that moving on past grief is not easy it tears you apart on the inside until you feel like you are going to break and crumble.

THEME The theme of this poem is that everyone experiences grief and they have to learn to deal with it, but it will never fully be gone. This is the theme of the poem because the poem tells of grief being felt within a person and them trying to learn to face it and move on. The line “Touch it the marble eyelids are not wet” helps to tell the theme because the person is not able to cry about their grief that they facing. The line “If it could weep, it could arise and go” tells the theme because the person is not able to fully get over the grief that they are experiencing. If they were able to they would be free but that never really happens. Another example of theme is in the line “Beat upwards to God’s throne is loud access”. This tells that the person is looking for a better answer to help them move on; but that answer won’t really come because you can never fully get over the grief that you have experienced.

Websites Used Pictures: www.Alarmy.com Financial Samurai (3rd picture) Research: www.poetryoutloud.org