Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnet 34 "With the same heart, I said, I’ll answer thee"

Introduction and Text of Sonnet 34 "With the same heart, I said, I’ll answer thee"

The character speaking in Barrett Browning's Sonnet 34 "With the same heart, I said, I’ll answer thee" from Sonnets from the Portuguese has returned to her melancholy attitude. Now she is contrasting her happy, carefree childhood years to her very stern and serious life as a mature adult.

The speaker however is addressing her belovèd, imploring him to consider how important he is to her. As earnest, obedient, and steadfast as she was as a child, now her constancy with her belovèd is even more in evident. The speaker continues to build her case for deserving the love of such an accomplished man, whom she considers to be much above her own station in life.

Sonnet 34 "With the same heart, I said, I’ll answer thee"

With the same heart, I said, I’ll answer thee
As those, when thou shalt call me by my name—
Lo, the vain promise! is the same, the same,
Perplexed and ruffled by life’s strategy?
When called before, I told how hastily
I dropped my flowers or brake off from a game,
To run and answer with the smile that came
At play last moment, and went on with me
Through my obedience. When I answer now,
I drop a grave thought, break from solitude;
Yet still my heart goes to thee—ponder how—
Not as to a single good, but all my good!
Lay thy hand on it, best one, and allow
That no child’s foot could run fast as this blood.

Commentary on Sonnet 34 "With the same heart, I said, I’ll answer thee"

Returning to the melancholy character she has so often maintained, the speaker contrasts her light-hearted childhood's response with her serious maturity.

First Quatrain: The Necessity of Consistency

With the same heart, I said, I’ll answer thee
As those, when thou shalt call me by my name—
Lo, the vain promise! is the same, the same,
Perplexed and ruffled by life’s strategy?

The pensive speaker professes a need to be consistent; thus, she repeats the word “same” three times in three lines. She is of the "same heart” as she was earlier in her lifetime. She is called by “[her] name. But she is unsure about “life's strategy.” She is even "perplexed and ruffled” by it.

The speaker hopes to convince herself that love has merely continued to flow into around her life. She also demands from her new love relationship a constant heart as she lovingly and gently makes demands on her belovèd.

Second Quatrain: The Obedient One

When called before, I told how hastily
I dropped my flowers or brake off from a game,
To run and answer with the smile that came
At play last moment, and went on with me

Earlier in her lifetime, the melancholy speaker had played the obedient one, coming when called, dropping her “flowers” or leaving off her “game.” She ran to answer and even "with a smile” she appeared. Such behavior continued because of her dedication to obedience.

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The speaker needs to be always consistent in her emotional responses. The static melancholy that she has experienced has programmed her to need a steady environment, even if she must create it from fragments of memory and emotional responses from the past.

First Tercet: Adult Life Different Details

Through my obedience. When I answer now,
I drop a grave thought, break from solitude;
Yet still my heart goes to thee—ponder how—

Now the specific details of life are a bit different. Instead of games and flowers, she answers from the position of having dropped “a grave thought” or a “break from solitude.” But her heart goes now always to the belovèd. She spills out a command before venturing on, telling her beloved to “ponder how . . . .”

Even though the details of her adult life are different, her emotional responses are essentially the same. Her same heart-responses continue to guide her. Her new love relationship has become even more important to her than any relationship before.

Second Tercet: From Childhood to Adulthood

Not as to a single good, but all my good!
Lay thy hand on it, best one, and allow
That no child’s foot could run fast as this blood.

The speaker then concludes that the good her beloved has done her is not one in one single area but in “all my good!” She asks her beloved to understand that as fleet foot as she was at obedience as child, she is much faster at running to her belovèd than she could have ever been in her earlier life.

The speaker's blood now runs faster and with more passion than ever her foot did as a child. As important to her as were her earlier loves, her new belovèd has become even more vital to her life.

The speaker's melancholy seems to be desperate for her lover to grasp his importance to her. Thus, she continues to compare and contrast her life's environments from childhood to maturity.

Related Elizabeth Barrett Browning Information

• Introduction to Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Sonnets from the Portuguese" - Elizabeth Barrett Browning's classic work, "Sonnets from the Portuguese," is the poet's most anthologized and widely published work, studied by students in secondary schools, colleges, and universities and appreciated by the general poetry lover.

Commentaries on Other Barrett Browning Sonnets

• Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnet 1 "I thought once how Theocritus had sung". Owlcation. Original: March 2, 2023. Updated: January 28, 2024. EXCERPT: Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese unveil a marvelous testimony to the love and respect that the poet fostered for her suitor and future husband Robert Browning. Robert Browning’s stature as a poet rendered him one of the most noted and respected poets of Western culture.
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnet 2 "But only three in all God’s universe". Owlcation. Original: March 22, 2023. Updated: January 15, 2024. EXCERPT: In this sonnet, the poet creates a speaker who insists that the relationship is the destiny of this couple; it is karmically determined, and therefore, nothing in this world could have kept them apart once God had issued the decree for them to come together.
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 9 "Can it be right to give what I can give?".Owlcation. Original: March 22, 2023. Updated: February 1, 2024. EXCERPT: Sonnet 9, from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese, seems to offer the speaker's strongest rebuttal against the pairing of herself and her beloved. She seems most adamant that he leave her; yet in her inflexible demeanor screams the opposite of what sheappears to be urging upon her lover.
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 23 "Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead". Owlcation. Original: January 10, 2024. Updated: January 28,, 2024. EXCERPT: In Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet 23 "Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead" from Sonnets from the Portuguese, the speaker dramatizes the ever-growing confidence and profound love the speaker is enjoying with her belovèd.

This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.

© 2024 Linda Sue Grimes