- twineverbChapter 1 →
To wind or wrap around something in a twisting, coiling way, the way a climbing plant curls itself around a support as it grows.
“my thoughts do twine and bud / About thee, as wild vines, about a tree.”
- budverbChapter 1 →
To sprout new growth, as a plant puts out fresh buds; here it suggests thoughts multiplying and swelling outward rather than simply existing.
“my thoughts do twine and bud / About thee, as wild vines, about a tree.”
- wild vinesphraseChapter 1 →
Uncultivated climbing plants that grow freely and wrap themselves densely around whatever they touch, used here to picture thoughts that have grown uncontrolled and all-consuming.
“my thoughts do twine and bud / About thee, as wild vines, about a tree.”
- palm-treenounChapter 1 →
A tall, straight tropical tree with a bare trunk and a crown of leaves at the top; used as a term of endearment for the beloved, suggesting uprightness, strength, and beauty.
“Yet, O my palm-tree, be it understood / I will not have my thoughts instead of thee!”
- be it understoodphraseChapter 1 →
An emphatic declaration meaning 'let this be made perfectly clear'; a formal way of insisting that what follows is a firm, non-negotiable statement.
“Yet, O my palm-tree, be it understood / I will not have my thoughts instead of thee!”
- renewverbChapter 1 →
To restore or bring back something in its full, fresh form; here, to make the beloved's actual physical presence felt again after it has been replaced by mental images.
- rustleverbChapter 1 →
To make a soft, whispering sound of light movement, as leaves do when stirred by wind; here it evokes the way thoughts scatter and disperse when the beloved arrives.
- tendrilnounChapter 1 →
A slender, thread-like part of a climbing plant that curls around a support to hold the plant in place; here it represents the clinging, delicate attachments of the speaker's imagination.
- insphereverbChapter 1 →
To enclose or contain something within a sphere; here it means to surround or envelop the speaker completely, as the beloved's presence wraps around her.
- graciousadjectiveChapter 1 →
Pleasingly beautiful and full of gentle goodness; here it describes the speaker's own imagined breath or dream of the beloved as lovely but ultimately inferior to the real thing.
- sestetnoun
The final six lines of a Petrarchan sonnet, which typically introduce a turn or resolution in response to the opening eight lines.
Sonnet 29 — I think of thee!Short story by Elizabeth Barrett Browning