ON TWO INSUFFICIENCIES IN ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING’S POETRY

Abstract

This paper deals with two poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, both titled “Insufficiency” and written in the period 1844-46. The common ground is the problem of self-expression – ever limited because contingent upon one’s verbal capacity, physical wellbeing and phenomenal appreciation by an Other. Our optics of approaching the matter in hand is set upon the premise of modern European existential ethics and hermeneutics. We also feel the need to outline a broader thematic context by referring in particular to Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850).