Sonnets from the Portuguese
Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote this sequence of forty-four sonnets in secret during her courtship with the poet Robert Browning, then let him read them only after their marriage. The coy title, hinting at a foreign source, was a screen for verse far too intimate to publish plainly as her own. Across the cycle she moves from doubt and self-effacement toward a settled, hard-won trust in being loved, tracing the inner life of a woman who never expected romance to reach her. The collection holds some of the best-known lines in English poetry, above all the opening of the forty-third sonnet, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” This free PDF and EPUB edition gathers the complete sequence.
Listen to Sonnets from the Portuguese Audiobook Free
Listen to Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning free online. The full audiobook (48 min, 44 chapters, read by Kirsten Ferreri) streams free on this page.
Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850) is a public domain work.
| # | Chapter | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | I thought once how Theocritus had sung | 1:11 | |
| 2 | But only three in all God’s universe | 1:06 | |
| 3 | Unlike are we, unlike, o princely heart | 1:04 | |
| 4 | Thou hast thy calling to some palace floor | 1:06 | |
| 5 | I lift my heavy heart up solemnly | 1:08 | |
| 6 | Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand | 1:06 | |
| 7 | The face of all the world is changed, I think | 1:06 | |
| 8 | What can I give thee back, O liberal | 1:07 | |
| 9 | Can it be right to give what I can give? | 1:04 | |
| 10 | Yet, love, mere love, is beautiful enough | 1:12 | |
| 11 | And therefore if to love can be desert | 1:05 | |
| 12 | Indeed this very love which is my boast | 1:06 | |
| 13 | And wilt thou have me fashion into speech | 1:06 | |
| 14 | If thou must love me, let it be for nought | 1:05 | |
| 15 | Accuse me not, beseech thee, that I wear | 1:03 | |
| 16 | And yet, because thou overcomest so | 1:03 | |
| 17 | My poet, thou canst touch on all the notes | 1:09 | |
| 18 | I never gave a lock of hair away | 1:06 | |
| 19 | The soul’s Rialto hath its merchandise | 1:07 | |
| 20 | Beloved, my beloved, when I think | 1:05 | |
| 21 | Say over again, and yet once over again | 1:10 | |
| 22 | When our two souls stand up erect and strong | 1:03 | |
| 23 | Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead | 1:04 | |
| 24 | Let the world’s sharpness, like a clasping knife | 1:01 | |
| 25 | A heavy heart, Beloved, have I borne | 1:02 | |
| 26 | I lived with visions for my company | 1:05 | |
| 27 | My own Beloved, who has lifted me | 1:06 | |
| 28 | My letters! all dead paper, mute and white! | 1:08 | |
| 29 | I think of thee!–my thoughts do twine and bud | 1:05 | |
| 30 | I see thine image through my tears tonight | 1:04 | |
| 31 | Thou comest! All is said without a word | 1:01 | |
| 32 | The first time that the sun rose on thine oath | 1:03 | |
| 33 | Yes, call me by my pet-name! Let me hear | 1:03 | |
| 34 | With the same heart, I said, I’ll answer thee | 1:01 | |
| 35 | If I leave all for thee, wilt thou exchange | 1:00 | |
| 36 | When we first met and loved, I did not build | 1:06 | |
| 37 | Pardon, oh, pardon that my soul should make | 1:01 | |
| 38 | First time he kissed me, he but only kissed | 1:13 | |
| 39 | Because thou hast the power and own’st the grace | 1:04 | |
| 40 | Oh yes! they love all through this world of ours! | 1:05 | |
| 41 | I thank all who have loved me in their hearts | 1:02 | |
| 42 | My future will not copy fair my past | 1:05 | |
| 43 | How do I love thee? Let me count the ways | 1:09 | |
| 44 | Beloved, thou hast brought me many flowers | 1:09 |
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