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LITERARY LAPSE: AN APOLOGY TO A POET

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From: Roanoke Times & World News
Date: 20060726
Author:Joe Kennedy [email protected] 981-3256

In my haste to cobble together a piece about ice cream parlors for Saturday, I inadvertently included a portion of a poem from a reader who attributed it not to its author, but to William Shakespeare.

Shakespeare, known as the Bard, did not write "Sonnets from the Portuguese." They were quilled by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who lived from 1806 to 1861.

I quoted the opening lines of No. 43:

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways."

Elizabeth Browning was writing to her husband, Robert Browning, who sometimes called her "my little Portuguese" because of her dark complexion.

At this point, ...

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