Barrett Browning's Sonnet 19

The soul's Rialto hath its merchandise

Nov 4, 2009 Linda Sue Grimes

The two lovers exchange locks of hair, and the speaker makes a ceremony of the exchange as she again emphasizes the royalty of her lover's station and talent.

In sonnet 18 of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese, the speaker dramatically celebrated giving a lock of her hair to her belovèd, and the little drama continues with sonnet 19, as she receives a lock from him.

First Quatrain: “The soul's Rialto hath its merchandise”

As in sonnet 18, the speaker offers a bit of an oration, commemorating the exchange of locks of hair between the two lovers. She metaphorically compares the soul to a marketplace, the Rialto, an important commercial district in Venice. She applies the commercial metaphor because of the trade taking place between the two lovers.

She suggests that she is receiving the lock from the head of her poet/lover with all the gusto that one would experience upon receiving whole loads of cargoes from ships; the speaker exaggerates the value of that lock by asserting that it “outweighs argosies.” It is even more valuable than all the cargo arriving in oceanliners.

Second Quatrain: “As purply black, as erst to Pindar's eyes”

In the second quatrain, the speaker emphasizes the blackness of her lover’s lock. The “curl,” she claims, is so black that it is “purply black.” Again, she employs the color of royalty to distinguish the high station of her talented, handsome, accomplished lover.

She alludes to the ancient Greek poet, Pindar, who is considered the greatest of the nine most famous ancient Greek poets, whom she references as “the nine white Muse-brows.” Her lover’s lock is as significant, and he is as important to the poetry world as those Greek poets are.

First Tercet: “Still lingers on thy curl, it so black!”

The speaker voices her assumption that “the bay-crown’s shade, Beloved / / Still lingers on the curl. The “bay-crown” refers to that most famous poet, Pindar, whose shadow-presence influences her lover’s talent through his “purpureal tresses.”

The speaker insists that because of the high value she places on that black lock of hair, she will keep the lock close to her heart to keep it warm. Likely, she will place it in a locket, but she exaggerates her drama by saying she is binding it with her “smooth-kissing breath” and tying “the shadows safe from gliding back.”

Second Tercet: “And lay the gift where nothing hindereth”

In placing the lock next to her heart, she is safe-guarding the “gift where nothing” can disturb it. Close to her heart, the lock will “lack / No natural heat” until, of course, the speaker “grows cold in death.” The ceremony of the lock exchange is complete, and the love affair progresses to the next stage.

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Pindar