I Think of Thee (Sonnet 29)

I Think of Thee (Sonnet 29) Literary Elements

Speaker or Narrator, and Point of View

The speaker is an unidentified individual expressing their feelings and yearnings towards a lover; additional context tells us that this poem is largely autobiographical, and the speaker is likely the author, Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Form and Meter

The poem is an Italian sonnet comprising of an octave and a sestet. It is written in iambic pentameter and has an ABBA ABBA CDCDCD rhyme scheme.

Metaphors and Similes

The poem as a whole is an extended metaphor, in which the speaker's thoughts are represented as vines and the lover is represented as a tree.

Alliteration and Assonance

Assonant "ee" sounds occur frequently—for instance, in the sentence "About thee, as wild vines, about a tree" or "Because, in this deep joy to see and hear thee." Alliterative "th" sounds are also frequent, as in "I will not have my thoughts instead of thee" and "I think of thee!—my thoughts do twine and bud"

Irony

The more the speaker imagines her lover in an attempt to feel close to him, the more isolated and cut off she feels from him.

Genre

Petrarchan/Italian sonnet

Setting

The poem's setting is vague, but its metaphorical scenarios take place in a forest or jungle

Tone

Romantic; Vulnerable

Protagonist and Antagonist

The protagonist of the poem is the speaker. The antagonist is her thoughts, which mar the reality of the romance.

Major Conflict

The major conflict is internal: the speaker feels torn between her drive to imagine and her fear of imaginative excess.

Climax

The climax occurs after line eight, when the speaker urges the lover to free himself from her thoughts.

Foreshadowing

N/A

Understatement

N/A

Allusions

The poem makes no explicit allusions, but it does allude to the real-life relationship between the poet and Robert Browning.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

In the phrase "the straggling green," the color green is used as metonymy to represent vines.

Personification

In a sense, the speaker personifies the natural world, first using natural objects as metaphors for people and then personifying those objects by imagining them acting in human-like ways.

Hyperbole

The word "everywhere" in the phrase "Drop heavily down,—burst, shattered, everywhere!" is hyperbolic.

Onomatopoeia

"Shattered” and “rustle” are examples of onomatopoeia.