According to Leigh Hunt who wrote “An Essay on the Desirableness of the Cultivating Sonnet” in The Book of the Sonnet a sonnet has the ability to arouse different moods and emotions. She claims say that you can laugh and lament in a sonnet. She goes on to say that one can narrate or describe, can rebuke, admire and even pray in a sonnet. In the 14 line sonnet “Beloved, thou hast brought me many flowers” by Elizabeth Barret Browning the speaker opens up by introducing us to an image of a garden full of beautiful flowers. This beautiful image is linked to the title of the poem, “Beloved, thou hast brought me many flowers” This can be seen as a sonnet about love. It is possible that we, as the readers, get the impression that the speaker is speaking about the love that she shares with her lover (for the purpose of this essay I will assume that the speaker is female) in the form of flowers and poetry. She uses the imagery of flowers and the planting of flowers and the actual poetry to describe the love that they share. This essay looks at the sonnet by Elizabeth Barret Browning and uses the quote by Leigh Hunt to analyse the sonnet.
The speaker opens the sonnet by saying “Beloved, thou hast brought me many flowers/Plucked in the garden, all summer through/and winter” (Lines 1-2). The speaker is speaking to her lover and we can sense a very loving, sensual and calm tone. She acknowledges the fact that her lover has brought her so many flowers and shows us that she really