Elizabeth Barrett Browning's romantic poem, "Patience Taught By Nature," is an Italian sonnet with the rime scheme ABBAABBACDECDE, a typical one for the Italian sonnet.
Octave: “O dreary life! we cry, O dreary life!”
In the octave of “Patience Taught by Nature,” the speaker begins with a mournful refrain, “O dreary life! we cry, O dreary life!” She is actually beginning a complaint about the nature of human beings, who constantly bemoan and decry their lot in life. People seem never to be satisfied, while the creatures of nature are models of serenity, cheerfulness, and patience.
Then the speaker compares the ill-tempered human being to others of nature’s forms of life: for example, “the birds / Sing through our sighing.” While the human sits and sighs and frets, the birds are constantly cheerful. The birds and even the cattle “Serenely live while we are keeping strife.”
And the human beings even possess the great advantage over the lower animals, the ability to know “Heaven's true purpose.” That knowledge should be enough to act as a shield against all of human struggling. Even the ocean seems to soldier on, lapping upon the shores untrammeled by cares and woes. The land seems to carry on and “unweary sweep.” The “hills watch” and do not become depressed.
Sestet: “Meek leaves drop yearly from the forest-trees”
Every year without complaint or misery, the trees throw down their leaves and then the human eye can catch a glimpse of the unruffled stars “that pass / In their old glory.” Then the speaker bursts forth, mid line, calling on God: “O thou God of old!”
She calls on God, as she had understood the concept in an earlier time, which she implies is more sturdy and durable than the uncertainties of the present. The past is always a comfortable haven for those who are miserable in the present: the good old days, the glory days are concepts that people use to assuage their present uneasiness.
In the last three lines, the speaker prays to the God of old to give her just a small portion of the grace that these aforementioned natural creatures possess. But she asks mostly for patience; she asks for the same patience that a “blade of grass” possesses as it continues to flourish “contented through the heat and cold.”
Commentary
The notion of a constantly contented, patient nature is, obviously, a very romantic one. One might point out that nature is not the perfect model this speaker seems to believe it is. The speaker has no way of knowing if the birds are really always so cheerful, and why should they be? They surely suffer greatly trying to procure their daily sustenance, building nests for their babies, whom they then must teach to be independent.
And the oceans often whip up hurricanes and storms. And tornadoes sweep through the land uprooting trees. Rivers change their courses. Many natural events involving animals and the landscape point to a lack of patience, grace, and serenity.
So while the poem makes a lovely, romantic statement that the human being would be better served to be more patient and have more grace, the human being could search in a better, more accurate place other than the lower animals and unpredictable nature to find a model for that grace and patience. Perhaps the “God of old” might have an idea or two.
Another Barrett Browning article: “Browning’s ‘How do I love thee?’”
