SONNET 43

BY Elizabeth Barrett Browning

(1806-1861)
England
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
the speaker poses this
question
How does she love the
man she loves? She decides to count the
ways in which she loves
him throughout the poem

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and Ideal Grace. (1)SPATIAL LOVE-
depth,breadth,height-
soul(3 dimensional object)
her love- PASSIONATE, sense of touch
INTENSE how broad and wide and
deep is her love
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light

She loves him in a regular, day-to-day

way
(2)EVERYDAY LOVE
(marital bliss,happy domestic life)
the lovers are looking at each other all (3)She feels it is
the time(night and day) Right to love her
beloved
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right (4)Her love is
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. PURE,she loves
without wanting
anything in return
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.

“lost saints”-the
(5)I love you with all the energyI used to people(friends,family
spend being BITTER about stuff in my members,relatives) you
past used to believe in that
(6)-Love that is naïve and simple(like a you don’t have faith
child’s) anymore
“heroes” who LET YOU
DOWN
this LOVE you had-
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose focused in your
BELOVED-your FAITH IN
With my lost saints- HIM(7)
I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!-
(8,9,10)-breath, smiles,tears
continuous breath of life,during happy
and sad moments- she goes on loving
him
her HAPPINESS- is an expression of her
LOVE for him
and if God choose, If God will let her, she’s
I shall but love thee better after death. going to love her
beloved even more
intensely after death
(11)- “after life” way of
loving
SUMMARY
her love seems the speaker
to be eternal asks how
and to exist she loves
everywhere SONNET 43 her beloved
Elizabeth Barret
the speaker Browning she tries to
intends to continue list the
loving him after different
her own death, if ways in
God lets her which she
loves him