Attempt a critical appreciation of the poem with special reference to the Classical allusions used in the poem I thought once how Theocritus had sung. / Would you agree with the view that this sonnet I thought once how Theocritus had sung records a moment of transition in the speaker’s life and thoughts? Give reasons for your answer.

Attempt a critical appreciation of the poem with special reference to the Classical allusions used in the poem I thought once how Theocritus had sung. / Would you agree with the view that this sonnet I thought once how Theocritus had sung records a moment of transition in the speaker’s life and thoughts? Give reasons for your answer.

The first sonnet in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese features a speaker who expresses the fruitlessness of dwelling on death and the melancholy such musing will create.

First Quatrain: The Bucolic Classic Poetry of Theocritus

I thought once how Theocritus had sung
Of the sweet years, the dear and wished-for years,
Who each one in a gracious hand appears
To bear a gift for mortals, old or young:

The speaker begins her dramatizing of her musing by imparting the fact that she has studied closely the bucolic poetry of the ancient classical poet, Theocritus. That classical Greek poet "had sung / Of the sweet years, the dear and wished-for years." She has perceived the idea from the poem’s insightful knowledge that every year offers “a gift to mortals”; the elderly and the youthful alike are capable of receiving those marvelous and sacred blessings.

The speaker's melancholy and loneliness have moved her to search out answers for questions that have plagued her, answers regarding the purpose of living. The speaker rightly and thankfully is consulting the ancient thinkers because she knows they have offered wisdom and courage to each succeeding generation.

Second Quatrain: Finding Her Own Life in Poetry

And, as I mused it in its antique tongue,
I saw, in gradual vision through my tears,
The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years,
Those of my own life, who by turns had flung

After continuing to muse on the words of Theocritus, the speaker well understands the sentiment expressed in these words, that will bring her eyes to tears. And through those sincere tears, she seems to see her "own life." She knows that her own years have not been especially kind to her. Her own life has been filled with much sorrow. The gifts provided by time are not always welcome ones to the recipient. Such is life......................................................................................................................

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