Lesson video

Hello everybody and welcome to lesson two.

on Elizabeth Barrett-Browning and her poetry.

Now I love Elizabeth Barrett-Browning, because she was a strong woman and she had very strong beliefs.

But also because she dealt with things that worried her, to try to make sure that they didn't become problems that went on forever.

So today in our lesson, I can't wait for you to see how she dealt with her feelings, when she was feeling conflicted and unsure about her feelings for Robert Browning.

So stay with me, and enjoy lesson two.

In this lesson, you will need an exercise book or some paper to write on, as well as something to write with.

So a pen or a pencil, whichever you prefer.

But you'll also need your brain to be focused on what it is that we're going to be doing today.

So, what I'd suggest that you do is that you press pause, and take a few minutes to make sure that you have all the equipment you need, but also that you get rid of anything that might distract you in the lesson.

So anything that might keep you from concentrating, just put that to one side for the lesson.

And then when you're ready, press play to start again.

Welcome back to lesson two, on Elizabeth Barrett-Browning and her writing.

We're going to start our time together by recapping what we already know about her.

And I thought it might be fun to do some revision in a slightly different way, to recap what we know, using numbers.

The first number we're going to look at is the number 11.

So on the screen, you'll see there are four options.

Each is a statement about Elizabeth Barrett-Browning.

What you need to do is you need to look at the four options and decide which option is true for the number 11.

So pause the video and make your choice.

And then resume when you are ready.

Welcome back.

You're going to have to pause the video again now so that we can check our answers.

Well done if you chose option two, 11 is the number of children in her family.

Option one is that she was this age when she meant Browning.

Actually, she was a lot older than 11 when she met Browning.

So it's not option one.

And option three, the number of sonnets she wrote about her love for Browning.

Again, the number 11 is way too small.

Option four is her age when her mother died.

Now sadly, although then she was older than 11 when her mother died, she was only 20.

So if you want to pause the video now, just check your answer again.

You might want to change your answer.

When you're ready, resume the video.

Our second number is the number 44.

So again, you're going to have to match the number 44 to one of the four options on the page in front of you.

So pause the video to match to the option.

And then when you're ready, press play to resume.

Welcome back.

So let's have a look at the answers that we have on the screen.

The first option says she was this age when she met Browning.

Now, remember I said, she was a lot older than 11? But she wasn't 44.

She was 39 when she met Browning, close to 44, but not quite there.

Option two, "how do I love thee?" is a line from this sonnet.

Gosh, this one's even closer.

It's not 44 though, it's 43.

So she was 39 when she met Robert Browning and the line "how do I love thee" comes from Sonnet 43.

Option three is the number of sonnets she wrote about her love for Browning.

Now we know that she wrote more than 50 sonnets about her love for Browning.

So the correct option for number 44, is the number of sonnets in the collection she published.

That's right, there were 44 sonnets in the collection that she published.

The next thing we're going to look at is Elizabeth Barret-Browning's feelings about falling in love.

Now, if you look at these images on the screen, you will see that she had lots of different feelings.

There's some happy ones, some sad, some worried.

And this is true about Elizabeth Barrett-Browning's feeling's too.

Being in love can be very complicated and actually, to be fair, Elizabeth Barrett-Browning wasn't the only one to have mixed feelings about falling in love.

If you don't believe me, just watch this video clip.

I brought you an umbrella.

Oh thank you.

What are you doing out here? Remember when you said that I liked Lucy? Well, it turns out you're right.

Really? Yes, but well, she's moving away.

I'm never going to see her again.

Is there anything I could do to help? I don't think so sweetheart.

Well is there anything you could do? Hello, Lucy, this is Gru.

I know, up to this point, our relationship has been strictly professional and you're leaving for Australia and all, but okay, here is the question.

Would you like to go out on a date? Eh, no.

Okay, that's not the helping.

All right, here we go.

For real this time.

I can do this.

Ah, I hate you.

Now fortunately, Elizabeth Barrett-Browning didn't resort to such extreme measures, but like Gru, she was really unsure.

She had many reasons why she wasn't sure that her love for Browning would work, or that a relationship between them wouldn't work.

We're going to look at just three of those reasons.

The first reason has to do with the number 39.

Now you will remember that we've talked about this number before in this lesson today.

And that's right, that was her age when she met Browning.

So she'd been on her own for a long time.

And at 39, she was considered quite old in the Victorian era to be single and not married yet.

So one of the reasons that she was unsure about falling in love with anybody, not just Browning, was her age.

The second reason was that she'd been ill.

So one of the things that she was very aware of was that her health wasn't good.

And when someone isn't very well, and they struggle with pain, that can affect whether or not they're happy.

And she was really worried that her sickness would make it difficult for them to build a relationship.

So that was the second reason that she was unsure.

The third reason that she was unsure about having a relationship with Browning was that she'd read and written a lot about women and women's rights.

And so she wasn't quite sure whether she should believe Browning and his romantic ideas.

And she actually wasn't sure whether he would agree with her views on women and women's rights.

So there were three reasons that she was unsure about falling in love.

Number one was her age.

Number two, her health.

And the third one was her belief.

And these three reasons left her feeling conflicted.

And we're going to go through those reasons again, because they're really important.

So what we're going to do is, I'm going to read the bits that are on the screen, and I want you to shout out the missing words.

So are you ready? The first reason that Barrett Browning was unsure about falling in love was? Oh I didn't hear that, you're going to have to shout a bit louder.

The first reason that she was unsure about falling in love was her? Oh that's much better.

The first reason was her age.

The second reason was her? Oh, you can do better than that.

The second reason was her? That's right, it was her health.

The third reason was? Well done.

It was her beliefs.

So her age, her health and her beliefs, And these three reasons left her feeling? That's right.

They left her feeling conflicted.

Now I'd like you to pause the video and write down those three reasons in your exercise book or on your paper, and press play to resume when you are ready.

Welcome back.

What I'd like you to do now is to pause the video to check your answers, and then to press play when you are ready to move on.

And what I'd like us to do now, is just before we move on to look at the poem itself, I'm going to remind you about three important numbers.

Now, the first number of course we know really well.

Number 44, you've seen it before.

And of course it's the number of sonnets in the sonnets from the Portuguese collection that Elizabeth Barrett-Browning published.

The second number is 43.

And we talked about Sonnet 43 as well a little bit earlier in the lesson, because we know that this is the sonnet that has been used so many times in advertisements and we're talking about love.

It's the sonnet, "How do I love thee".

But it's the third number that is really important for our lesson today, because this is the number of the sonnet we're going to be looking at for the rest of the lesson.

That's right.

We're going to be looking at Sonnet 14.

So welcome to Sonnet 14.

And the first thing that we're going to do is, we're going to actually just have a listen to the sonnet.

We're going to listen to it being read to us.

And we're just going to follow along on the screen as it's read to us.

If they're must love me, let it be for nought except for love's sake only Do not say I love her for her smile, her look, her way of speaking gently.

For a trick of thought that falls in well with mine, and certes brought a sense of pleasant ease on such a day.

For these things in themselves, beloved, may be changed or change for thee, and love so wrought, may be unwrought so.

Neither love me for thine own dear pities wiping my cheeks dry.

A creature might forget to weep, who bore thy comfort long and lose thy love thereby.

But love me for love's sake, that evermore thou mayst love on, through loves eternity.

Wow, wasn't that beautiful? Now, sometimes when we look at poems like these, the language looks a little bit different.

And so, that might make it seem like the poem is difficult, but it's not really.

So what I thought might be useful, is if we look at a few words in the poem that might be a bit strange to you, or that might seem to be difficult for you.

And then you'll see that poem is not really difficult at all.

And the first word I'm going to look at is the word "thou".

Now 'thou" is really just an old fashioned way of saying "you".

So "if thou must love me", is simply "if you must love me".

And the second word I want to look at is the word "certes".

because that looks a bit strange and it's not a word we see anymore.

But you might have noticed that certes sounds a little bit like certain or certainly.

And that's useful because it means "truly".

That falls in well with mine and truly brought a sense of pleasant ease on such a day.

That's all it means.

And then of course we had "thou", but we also have the word "thee".

And "thee" is another way of saying "you".

I love thee.

I love you.

Now you may have noticed a picture of an iron railing post on the screen.

That's because it's connected to the word wrought.

So we often talk about wrought iron.

And this is when iron is beaten and moulded into a shape.

And what Barrett is talking about here is about love being shaped, that love can be shaped and unwrought, unshaped.

So the poem itself is not really difficult, even though there may be some words that are unfamiliar to you.

But do you remember we talked about Elizabeth Barrett- Browning being uncertain about her love, about having mixed feelings? She felt some positive feelings about being in love, but she also felt some negative feelings about being in love.

So if you look at the screen, you will see a text box.

And in the text box is a whole lot of words that all come from the poem.

So what I'd like you to do, is to pause the video and make two columns in your book or on your page.

Label the one column negative, or put a sad face on it.

And label the other column positive or put a happy face on it.

Then I'd like you to take all the words from the text box and put them into one of those two columns.

So pause the video to begin, And don't forget to press play to resume the video when you're finished.

Welcome back.

Now it's time to check.

So all the words fell either into the positive column, in which case they're in the blue, or they fell the negative column, in which case they're in the pink.

So well done if you put love, smile, gently, pleasant, comfort, and eternity into the positive column.

What you may want to do now, is to just pause the video to check your answers, and when you're ready, press play to resume.

Now remember, we talked about how Elizabeth Barrett-Browning was conflicted about falling in love.

And we did identify three reasons that she was conflicted.

Can you remember? They were her age, that's right.

And her? Health, superb.

And the last reason was? Well done if you shouted out her beliefs.

So there were three reasons that she was conflicted about falling in love.

So let's take a look to see if there's any evidence in the sonnet that we can use to prove that she felt these conflicting emotions.

Let's read through this extract from the sonnet and see what we can find.

Do not say I love her for her smile, her look, her way of speaking gently, for a trick of thought that falls in well with mine.

So let's start by looking at the first quotation.

"Her smile" Now Barrett-Browning knew that she couldn't be sure that she would always be happy.

And one of the main reasons for that, was that she suffered from ill health and she was often in a lot of pain.

And so she worried that if somebody loved her for her smile, what might happen when she didn't smile? Because she wasn't happy, because her health wasn't good.

The second quotation "her look", Now remember, we said that Elizabeth Browning was 39 when she met Browning for the first time.

Well, not only was she sort of old, in Victorian times, to be single.

She was also six years older than he was, and she was very aware of this.

And so she was very conscious of the fact that as you grow older, your looks change.

And she said, look, if you fall in love with me because of how I look now, and my looks change as I grow older, then will that mean that you don't love me anymore? So, she was worried about her health.

She was worried about her age.

But she was also worried that he would love her only for speaking gently, because she knew that she wouldn't always speak gently because she had very strong beliefs.

And so it was important to her that he didn't love her for three reasons.

He didn't love her because of her smile, because she couldn't guarantee that she would always be happy.

She didn't want him to love her for her look, because she knew that that could change.

And she didn't want him to love her for her way of speaking gently, because she knew that she wouldn't always speak gently and they would disagree.

So what I'd like you to have a go at now is something we did in lesson one.

So I know that you're really good at doing this and I'd like you to have another go today.

And I've given you three sentences that need to be unscrambled.

So these three sentences remind us of the reasons that she was conflicted about falling in love with Browning.

Remember, you only need the words in the box and every sentence starts with the word "she".

Don't forget you start your sentence with a capital letter, and you end with a full stop.

So, pause the video to start unscrambling, and press play when you're ready to check your work.

Welcome back.

Now it's time to check your answers.

So you're going to need to pause the video again, and you're going to need to read through these three sentences, and check that you've unscrambled your sentences in the correct way.

Have you managed to do all three? Pause the video to check and then press play when you are ready to continue.

And now, we're coming to that time in the lesson when it's time for you to write some paragraphs in your book.

And we're going to look at how Elizabeth Browning felt about being in love and how she showed this in Sonnet 14.

So let's take a few minutes to work our way through what is the best way to write this paragraph.

Let's read the instruction together.

Now it's time for you to write about why Barrett-Browning was conflicted, and how she showed this in Sonnet 14.

Let's work on the first sentence together.

Barrett-Browning was? Oh my goodness.

You can do much better than that.

Barrett-Browning was? That's right, she was conflicted.

She was conflicted about her love for Robert Browning for how many reasons? Was it one? Was it two? No, you're correct, it was three.

Now let's read the whole sentence together.

Barrett-Browning was conflicted about her love for Robert Browning for three reasons.

Let's remind ourselves of those three reasons.

The first one was? That's right.

The first one was her age.

The second one was? Well done again, it was her health.

The third one was, of course, her beliefs.

And these three reasons left her feeling? Yes, they left her feeling conflicted about being in love with Browning.

So let's do the first reason together, okay.

The first reason was her? Age.

She was worried that her? Looks would fade.

So in the poem, she told him not to love her for? The quotation we need is? Her look.

So what I'd like you to do now, is to have a go at reasons two and three.

I've given you some help with two, but I would like you to try three on your own.

So press pause and write up your reasons.

And don't forget to press play when you already to resume.

Welcome back.

Let's have a read through what I've written and don't worry, your words may not be exactly the same as mine, but it is important that you have the main idea.

So if you've got the main idea, if you've got the main ideas, those would be the words in pink, give yourself a tick, and let's go through it together.

The first reason was her age.

She was worried that her looks would fade.

So in the poem, she told him not to love her for her look.

The second reason was her health.

She was worried that sometimes, her illness would make her miserable.

So in the poem, she told him not to love her for her smile.

So press pause, check what you've written and press play when you are ready to resume.

Now this one was a bit harder because I didn't give you any help.

Remember, don't worry if your wording is a bit different to mine, just look for common language.

And if they are similar points, give yourself a tick.

Press pause to give yourself time to check your work and then press play when you're ready to resume.

Thank you for joining me today for lesson two.

And I hope that I'll see you in lesson three, and we can continue learning about Elizabeth Barrett-Browning, and some of the amazing poetry that she wrote.

Take care.

Goodbye.