Barrett Browning's Sonnet 1
I thought once how Theocritus had sung
Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “I thought once how Theocritus had sung” is the first sonnet of her series titled Sonnets from the Portuguese. The series consists of 44 sonnets that focus primarily on love and devotion in the growing relationship between the poet and her future husband, Robert Browning. All of the poems from this series feature the Petrarchan, or Italian, form.
The Petrarchan sonnet consists of an octave, eight lines, and a sestet, six lines. The octave can be further divided into two quatrains, and the sestet can be divided in to tercets. These divisions are especially useful for purposes of analysis and commentary. The actual form of the Barrett Browning sonnets, however, features one unified stanza; these commentaries will divide them solely for convenience.
First Quatrain: “I thought once how Theocritus had sung”
The speaker opens by reporting how she once mused on the pastoral poems of Theocritus, in which the ancient Greek poet “had sung / Of the sweet years, the dear and wished-for years.” She takes from the poems’ insight that each year hands “a gift to mortals”; both the elderly and the youthful are recipients of these gifts.
The melancholy of loneliness has motivated the speaker to seek out answers to her questions about the purpose of living. She consults the ancients whose wisdom has proffered courage to every generation.
Second Quatrain: “And, as I mused it in his antique tongue”
The speaker then realizes that, as she continues to consider the thoughts expressed in this ancient Greek language, the words have brought tears to her eyes. But through those tears, she beholds a vision of her “own life.” She realizes that the years have not been kind to her, and she senses that those gifts are not always welcome ones.
That the speaker reads Greek implies that she had the ability to garner the deep emotion examined by the poet Theocritus. A translation might have hampered her understanding and allowed her but a superficial glimpse at the poet’s insights.
First Tercet: “A shadow across me. Straightway I was 'ware”
The speaker proclaims that her life was being lived under a “shadow” that stretches “across [her].” Then suddenly she realizes that she is “weeping” and that she feels that she is being pulled backward by her hair by some “mystic Shape,” which she is unable to identify.
Second Tercet: “And a voice said in mastery, while I strove”
She then hears a voice as she attempts get her bearings. The voice, which she qualifies as a “voice in mastery,” poses the question to her: “Guess now who holds thee?” She quickly and fatalistically answers, “Death.” But then to her happy surprise, the voice contradicts her, averring, “Not Death, but Love.”
Commentary
The first sonnet opens a wide field for the exploration of the adventure of life of a melancholy persona. Beginning with the expectation of death, the speaker has much to overcome in order to reach the heights of love, devotion, and appreciation that she, no doubt, is seeking.
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