Key Quotes & Comparisons
English Lit: AQA GCSE Poetry - Love & Relationships, topic 4.1.3
Key Quotations: Sonnet 29
Here's some key quotes to remember for you exam:
'Twine and bud...'
- 'My thoughts do twine and bud / About thee, as wild vines, about a tree'.
- Browning builds up an extended metaphor of her feelings being vines, whilst her lover is a steadfast tree.
- Her thoughts are unconstrained and growing out of control, obscuring the reality of her lover.
'My palm-tree...'
- 'Yet, O my palm-tree, be it understood / I will not have my thoughts instead of thee'.
- This quote indicates her changing mind in the second quatrain as she is beginning to realise that she should not place her thoughts of her lover over his physical presence
"Renew thy presence...'
- 'Renew thy presence; as a strong tree should'.
- As our narrator reaches this state of breaking free from her thoughts, the language of the poem becomes excited.
- Explosive verbs and imperatives, such as 'renew', exemplify the narrator’s reinvigorated desire for her lover.
Key Comparisons: Sonnet 29
Here are some suggestions for poems you could compare Sonnet 29 to. Remember, there are endless options!
Letters from Yorkshire
- You could compare depictions of love over distances and how the poets present these depictions.
Singh Song!
- You could compare the powerful and emotive metaphors for love or barriers to love and connection.
Test yourself on Key Quotes & Comparisons
Which of these quotes contains an imperative verb?
What theme could you compare in Letters from Yorkshire and Sonnet 29?
What theme do both Sonnet 29 and Singh Song! explore?