I’m studying for my English class and need an explanation.
1. Read Sonnet XLII.Your assignment is to re-write this poem.You do not have to use poetic language.You do not have to adhere to a structure or rhyme scheme.You do have to translate this poem from the somewhat antiquated poetic language of Elizabeth Barrett Browning to modern language and syntax.The translation must be in the same order as the original and it may not leave out any of the original thoughts.
My future will not copy fair my past—
I wrote that once; and thinking at my side
My ministering life-angel justified
The word by his appealing look upcast
To the white throne of God, I turned at last,
And there, instead, saw thee, not unallied
To angels in thy soul! Then I, long tried
By natural ills, received the comfort fast,
While budding, at thy sight, my pilgrim’s staff
Gave out green leaves with morning dews impearled.
I seek no copy now of life’s first half:
Leave here the pages with long musing curled,
And write me new my future’s epigraph,
New angel mine, unhoped for in the world!
