Elizabeth Barrett Browning
British · 19th century
Victorian English poet best known for Sonnets from the Portuguese, including the famous Sonnet 43 ('How Do I Love Thee, Let Me Count the Ways').
Connection to Taylor Swift
Uncle Jerry uses Browning's Sonnet 43 as a thematic counterpoint to Would've, Could've, Should've, representing a love that restores childhood faith versus one that destroys it.
Notable Works
- Sonnets from the Portuguese, Aurora Leigh
Appears in the Archive
Context within the Archive
Sonnets from the Portuguese
“I don't belong and, my beloved, neither do you”
Angela & Uncle Jerry identify Taylor's use of 'my beloved' as a direct echo of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese, specifically Sonnet 20 which addresses 'my beloved.' Uncle Jerry says this is a very 19th century, very Romantic form of address, and that Taylor has adopted the diction of Romanticism.
Aurora Leigh
“I want auroras and sad prose”
Angela & Uncle Jerry connect Taylor's line 'I want auroras' to Elizabeth Barrett Browning's long biographical poem Aurora Leigh. Uncle Jerry notes the connection mid-discussion, saying 'I want auroras and sad prose, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning writes this long poem, Aurora Lee.' The Aurora figure operates both as a reference to EBB's poem and to Aurora as the goddess of morning light.
Sonnets from the Portuguese
Uncle Jerry brings in Sonnet 43 from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese as a thematic counterpoint to Would've, Could've, Should've. He reads the Browning poem as what the Taylor Swift song's relationship should have been, a love that restored childhood faith and carried beyond death. Instead, Would've, Could've, Should've represents the opposite end of the spectrum: a relationship that destroyed childhood faith rather than restoring it. The Browning poem's references to 'childhood's faith' and 'lost saints' and love carried 'after death' directly parallel the religious imagery in the song.