Saturday, February 11, 2006
She wrote a Book of Love
"The widest land
Doom takes to part us, leaves thy heart in mine
With pulses that beat double."
Elizabeth Barrett (Sonnet VI)The other pulse was Robert Browning's; Elizabeth Barrett, steered into a Victorian spinster's semi-invalidism by a domineering father, was left alone with the voice of her heart when Robert was not there. Poets take a perverse delight in suffering their emotions.
Yet, Elizabeth & Robert are a nonpareil love couple. Love carried them out of her dysfunctional home, all the way to Italy & into the Book of Love. Love healed her body somewhat & likely added years to her short life. Elizabeth's great heart & intellect transformed Robert's poetry. They risked everything for each other. She was past age 40 when she had a baby, especially dangerous in that era. We try to be practical, we say "love is never enough." Love was about all Elizabeth & Robert had for much of their time together.Who these days outside of a writer's imagination willingly gambles so much & with so much drama on such elemental emotions? The stupid, battered souls populating afternoon talk shows ruin love. They are fools who talk too much, complicate their lives absurdly, & have no comprehension of the poetry that can write itself in anyone's life. In the beginnings of their "relationships" they make promises they can't keep. In their tormented endings they say terrible words & commit regrettable acts. It is amazing that more of them do not kill each other.
The finest love stories are told in the middle pages of the book & rarely have the content of romantic literature. These stories build upon an accumulation of shared sacrifices & upon celebrations of daily life. Fidelity is the predominant theme. When Elizabeth wrote:
"What I do
And what I dream include thee, as wine
must taste of its own grapes."she was experiencing the fires of a beginning. Attribute it in part to pheromones if you like. But she really meant it, proving it through the fifteen years she spent with Robert. She saw beyond the heat, to the steady flame. Their life together began in scandal, but in matters of love her poems still carry a depth of authority. Love is a difficult enough thing without piling on the proscriptions of ignorant religion, the cliches of reactionary politicians preaching "values," or the frightening example of freaks victimizing themselves on television. We can reassure ourselves that love is sometimes worth a hefty wager, even if the game seems fixed. Elizabeth & Robert did. 
