Sonnets from the Portuguese

First published in 1850, Sonnets from the Portuguese is the great love-sonnet sequence of the English language: forty-four poems tracing a woman's journey from doubt and self-effacement to radiant acceptance of love. Written while Elizabeth Barrett Browning was being courted by the poet Robert Browning—against the wishes of her controlling father and in defiance of chronic illness—the sonnets transform private experience into universal art, crowned by the beloved lines 'How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.' This edition presents the complete, unabridged original text exactly as it appeared in 1850, accompanied by a new introduction that sets the sequence in the context of Barrett Browning's remarkable life and the Petrarchan tradition she reimagined. Reader's notes illuminate the imagery, allusions, and personal history woven through each sonnet. Intimate, courageous, and luminously crafted, these poems remain among the most tender declarations ever written. Part of The Founding Texts Library.