Elizabeth Barrett Browning: 'The best thing in the world' poem analysis

The best thing in the world: EBB

Written in 1855, the lyrical poem potentially expresses EBB’s content in life with her marriage and son, as its subject concerns the inability to define the best things in the world.

THEMES

·       Reflection

·       Happiness

·       Nature

·       Religion

TONE

·       Content

·       Reflective

·       Appreciative

FORM

·       Iambic tetrameter

·       Irregular rhyme scheme presents subjectivity of life’s best qualities / suggests positive outlook is uncommon

·       Broken rhyme in final line presents inability to define life’s best things

STRUCTURE

·       Juxtaposition highlights speakers rejection of life’s difficulties / acknowledges contrast between individual definitions of best things in life

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