Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Arabella Moulton-Barrett [sister], 12 January 1851: 'Now I am going to speak to you about those sonnets [...] The truth is that though they were written several years ago, I never showed them to Robert till last spring .. I felt shy about them altogether .. even to him. I had heard him express himself strongly against "personal" poetry & I shrank back. -- As to publishing them, it did not enter my head. But when Robert saw them, he was much touched & pleased -- & [...] could not consent, he said, that they should be lost to my volumes: so we agreed to slip them in under some sort of veil, & after much consideration chose the "Portugese" [goes on to explain reasons for choice]'.