Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 32, from Sonnets for the Portuguese, can be read as an expression of doubt which subtly transforms itself into a declaration of admiration and ultimately, a profession of love.  A note from the text reveals that the collection of poems in which this sonnet was published “chronicle Elizabeth Barrett’s courtship with Robert Browning.”  Knowing the subjects of this poem, the speaker, and the intended audience, one can make interpretations about the characters in the sonnet which could not be made if the were characters nameless.  With this information, there are two characters that one can interpret within the poem.  The speaker is Elizabeth Barrett Browning who addresses Robert Browning as the intended audience.  The sonnet itself may be seen in three recognizable parts.  The first part deals with Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s doubt and uncertainty.  She is hesitant to consider Robert Browning’s oath too seriously and is unable to see herself worthy of his love.  She attempts to portray her weakness through metaphor in the second part, criticizing lesser individuals, who brush her off at the first signs of insufficiency.  She then goes on to praise Robert Browning’s ability to render her shortcomings redundant.  Throughout this section of the sonnet, Barrett Browning uses form as well as content to develop the idea of her own inability whilst contrasting this with Robert Browning’s abundant capability.  She expresses Robert Browning’s mastery in a way that transforms herself, love, and poetry as the subjects of his skillfulness.  

Barrett Browning begins the poem with the image of the sun rising.  As the implied speaker, Barrett Browning states “The first time that the sun rose on thine oath / to love me, I looked forward to the moon.”  The sunrise may imply a post-coital scenario between Elizabeth and Robert, for it follows an oath of love.  The newly risen sun might also represent a new day, and thereby a new phase in Barrett Browning’s life; a life with the love of Robert Browning.  If the latter is the case, Barrett Browning eagerly expecting the moon seems negative and doubtful of the endurance of Robert’s love.  Returning to night for Barrett Browning would correspond to a return to her life before Robert.  The arrival of the moon, and the return to her previous life would “slacken all those bonds” which represent the oath of love.  The use of the word ‘bonds’ in this line may have dual connotations.  Bonds might represent the promises that Robert made to her or actual physical bondage, to which the metaphor of slackening alludes.  The comparison of the oath to restraints might imply that Robert’s promise of love to her constricts her.  She states that the bonds “seemed too soon / And quickly tied to make a lasting troth.”  This statement may suggest that the courtship between the lovers has not been extensive and that the relationship is new.  The word ‘troth’ in this statement may also convey two meanings.  It can mean a pledged loyalty or faith, referring to Robert’s oath of love, or a truth.  In either case, Barrett Browning seems reluctant to accept the oath as certainty.  

The speaker in the sonnet eventually goes so far in her hesitance, that she makes the statement “Quick-loving hearts…may quickly loathe.”  This line would suggest that not only does she consider Robert’s decision to love her hasty, but also something he may regret. However, Barrett Browning follows this line with the line “And, looking on myself, I seemed not one.”  This line is significant because it may represent an enjambment in the sonnet; it is possible that it carries a different significance for the line before it as well as the line after it.  Looking on herself, Elizabeth Barrett may realize that she is not one of the “Quick-loving hearts’ to which she refers.  This would make sense within the context of the sonnet, especially in relation to Elizabeth Barrett’s reluctance and doubt when faced with the emotional bond “too soon and quickly tied” between herself and Robert Browning.  Barrett Browning may be expressing her timidness in this line, not being able to love Robert Browning as quickly as he loves her.  However, the line runs on to recover an entirely different meaning.  The line continues “And, looking on myself, I seemed not one / For such man’s love!”  This addendum creates a completely new context for the preceding line.  In this portion of the enjambment, one can infer that Elizabeth Barrett seems nervous about her worth of Robert Browning’s love.  The exclamation is important because it is the first time in the poem that she has expressed herself this strongly.  The fact that she is so passionate about her unworthiness of Robert Browning’s love indicates a deep admiration of, or intimidation by, Browning. 

Barrett Browning compares herself to “an out-of-tune / Worn viol.”  In this comparison, Barrett Browning seems to be recognizing her own ability to convey art, though inferiorly.  This sonnet is written in Petrarchan style with an opening octet in the rhyme scheme ABBAABBA and a sestet in the rhyme scheme CDCDCD.  However, it is here in the poem that the rhymes change from perfect rhyme to half or imperfect rhyme.  This is significant because, here Barrett Browning writes of the “out-of-tune” nature of the Viol she represents.  The poem is also written in iambic pentameter, evoking the traditional Shakespearean style of the sonnet as well as a steady and even rhythm throughout.  This rhythmic meter of the poem allows a musical nature to be heard in the work.  However, in these imperfect rhymes, the musicality of the piece is disturbed as if it were out of tune.  The form of the sonnet here can be seen to match the content.  Music, in this section of the sonnet, may be used as a metaphor for both love and poetry.  Thus, if music is the metaphor being used for poetry in this sonnet, this line may be used to discredit herself as a poet.  If music is being used here as an allegory for love, Barrett Browning may be suggesting an inadequacy in her relationships.  She intimates that she is the viol, “a good singer would be wroth / To spoil his song with, and which, snatched in haste, / Is laid down at the first ill-sounding note.”  This passage may signify Barrett Browning’s critics in her writing or her past ill-fitted suitors.  As a reference to literary critics, Barrett Browning may be suggesting that those who sing (criticize) are angered by her work and immediately reject it.  This interpretation would not be incredible historically, as the patriarchy which dominated the literary canon often saw women’s writing as inferior.  The lines may also refer to past lovers.  Those who have attempted to court her in the past may have been thwarted by her insufficiencies or inadequacies in love.  If this is the case, it is unsurprising that Barrett Browning is so tentative in taking Robert Browning’s oath to be the truth.  Having been blighted in the past, she is unwilling to allow herself to accept this as the truth without scrupulosity. 

Finally, Barrett Browning states that she “did not wrong myself so, but I placed a wrong on thee.”  She is referring here to Robert Browning, whom she has apparently spoken of unjustly.  She comes to the realization that Robert Browning is a greatly skilled man and states “perfect strains may float / ‘Neath master-hands, from instrument defaced.”  Barrett Browning is referring here to Robert Brownings mastery of both poetry and love as music can be interpreted as representing both.  As such, any inadequacies of Barrett Browning are made redundant by Robert’s ability as a lover and a poet.  The reference to floating directly contrasts the bonds which Barrett Browning alluded to at the beginning of the sonnet, implying a freedom bestowed by Robert.  Barrett Browning ends the poem with the line “And great souls, at one stroke, may do and doat.”  This is another double entendre within the sonnet.  Again, representations of music, love, and poetry are evoked to highlight Robert Browning’s ability in both.  As a bowed instrument, the viol would be stroked with a bow to be played.  Thus, upon Robert Browning’s playing, the “great souls” within the viol would be released.  The stroke may also serve to represent the literal stroking of the human body, representing Browning’s mastery of love.  Finally, and perhaps most significantly, the stroke may represent Robert Browning’s pen-stroke.  If this is the case, it is his verse which causes Barrett Browning to directly contradict her earlier view of his love.  Her doating or uncritical love of Browning is in direct contrast to the many criticisms she had about the oath at the start of the sonnet. 

To conclude, one may infer that Barrett Browning makes a direct transformation within the sonnet.  She begins by questioning and challenging Robert Browning’s oath of love, citing modesty as her reasoning.  Her insufficiencies trouble her and cause her to question the immediacy of Robert’s love.  However, she begins to convey as the sonnet continues that she is confident in Robert Browning’s skill in love and poetry.  She finally concludes the poem with a declaration of unabashed and uncritical love.