Sonnets from the Portuguese

First published in 1850, this is a sequence of forty-four sonnets written as a private address from the speaker to the man she loves. The poems move from disbelief that she is worthy of love, through the fear of being seen, to the decision to give herself wholly, counting the ways of loving and asking how that love will last after death. The Portuguese of the title is a screen, not a translation from another language. There is no external plot. The book is a lyric courtship in sonnet form, not a narrative of a marriage and not a selection of miscellaneous poems.

Bound in dark red pattern blocked brocade. Gold slipcase with printed fore-edge label.