Longinus' Sublimity and Barrett-Browning's Sonnet LXIII

By Angelyn T Laus

George Sainsbury eulogized him fittingly with Aristotle and Coleridge. R.A. Scott-James addressed him as the "first Romantic critic." Cassius Longinus or Dionysius Longinus, born on the first or third century A.D., is a Greco-Roman critic who, besides Scott-James's praise to him, is also considered as the pioneer in the field of aesthetic appreciation of literature.

Longinus greatly owed his star in the hall of fame of greatest rhetoricians to his treatise, "On the Sublime", which some literary critics pointed was addressed to a certain Posthumius Terrentiamus, a pupil or a friend of Longinus. His treatise is a critical document of great world and significance. In fact, it could be considered as the most precious legacy of literary criticism. In it is a great combination of two great literary eras - Classicism and Romanticism. It offers a new approach to art and a new interpretation to literature.

Longinus's treatise of Sublimity involves five sources that could better criticize works of poetry as well as prose as being "sublime."

First on his list is that the work of art must give grandeur of thoughts. For Longinus, "Sublimity is the echo of greatness of [the] soul." In other words, the work must conceive in it thoughts that would impress the readers and stimulate their interest and emotions.

Elizabeth Barrett-Browning's Sonnet LXIII could be an example to depict this Longinian concept. Her sonnet gave thoughts that could not just impress her readers but also leave them something to remember. It is evident from the very first line to the fourteenth line of her sonnet:

(i) How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Barrett-Browning's idea of beginning her sonnet with a question (How do I love thee?) and then continuing it with a statement to support her first statement (Let me count the ways.) could have possibly perked the interest of the readers to go further in reading the other lines of the sonnet and discover what's behind those lines.

(xiv) I shall but love thee better after death.

In the last line of her sonnet, Barrett-Browning told of her eternal love for her amour. This brave expression, without a doubt, could and would completely and utterly impress any reader.

Second source of Longinian Sublimity is that it must give a strong appeal of emotions to the readers in order for them to achieve the same emotions the writer is trying to offer in his or her work. In this concept, Longinus quoted Plato's words - "A poet compasses poetry when he is inspired and possessed" - thus, the writer must be intoxicated enough with passion and imagination to transfer the same passion to in his readers. In other words, the writer must arouse the emotional transport of his or her readers with his or her work.

The whole Sonnet LXIII absolutely paved Barrett-Browning's strong emotions as she specifically cited in succession how deep her love for her beloved is. The whole sonnet gave the idea that she was inspired and possessed by her passionate, strong, and intense love for her husband that she was willing to love her until her lifetime passes by.

(xiv) I shall but love thee better after death.

Her last line gave the conclusion of the whole sonnet as well as the mark in the reader's mind that she's one great lover to imply that death is not an obstacle for her to stop loving her dearly-loved husband; thus, signifying, at the same time, that the reader felt the elevation of his or her emotions with Barrett-Browning's emotions expressed in her sonnet.

Longinus also pointed that a work of art is of sublimity (or exultation) if it has in it certain kinds of figures of thought and speech. In addition to that, he explained that the use of the figures of speech is not merely to embellish the work, but also to give the readers a better understanding of whatever she is implying.

Sonnet LXIII is obviously filled with figures of thought and speech that surely gave the readers a wholesome view of her passionate, strong, and intense love for her lover. The whole sonnet is rich in hyperboles as well as metaphors. Hyperboles are exaggerations of a writer to intensify the tone of his or her writings. Metaphors, on the other hand, are thoughts of a writer that gives direct comparison.

Hyperboles:
(i) I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
(ii) My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
(iii) For the ends of being and ideal grace.

(v) I love thee to the level of every day's
(vi) Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

(xii) I love thee with the breath,
(xiii) Smiles, tears, of all my life;

Metaphors:
(vii) I love thee freely, as men strive for right.

(viii) I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.

(ix) I love thee with the passion put to use
(x) In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

(xi) I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
(xii) With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,

(xiii) and, if God choose,
(xiv) I shall but love thee better after death.

Fourth source of Longinian Sublimity states that the work of art should have nobility in its diction. In other words, the words that the writer uses should have distinction to portray uniqueness in its choice of words.

In Sonnet LXIII, though Barrett-Browning's words were not highfaluting to appear pretentious, neither are fancy to seem a windbag. Rather, she chose words that are simple, and despite the simplicity, her words were distinct enough to create figures of thought to the reader's mind, and share and deliver her message to her reader/s.

(2) Words "depth", "breadth", and "height" are as simple as they appear to distinguish their differences; but, in Barrett-Browning's Sonnet LXIII, she gave these three words a different meaning that supported the message she's conveying.

(6) Words "sun" and "candlelight" are much simpler words which Barrett-Browning's figuratively used to signify day and night.

(14) The word "death" oftentimes is connoted negatively, but Barrett-Browning, on the other hand, implied it positively symbolizing her eternal love for her beloved.

Last source of Longinus's treatise about sublimity suggests the combination of the four concepts - that is, the composition. Furthermore, this concept emphasizes on the proper arrangement of the four aforementioned concepts to create a work of sublimity.

Barrett-Browning's Sonnet LXIII, appreciatively, encompassed all the aforesaid concepts as provided.

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