How Do Love Thee Elizabeth Barrett Browning asks, “How do love thee? Let me count the ways. ” (439). There are innumerable ways you are able to love to another individual. Each line of the poem answers her original question, and then goes on to prove (with evidence) that her love is indeed real. Browning describes and expresses her distinct feelings very literally about the one she loves in this poem. She explains love by listing and describing many of the ways that she knows how to love and compares it to circumstances which the readers can relate to.
Browning uses love to show readers that there are immeasurable ways to have this passion in How Do I Love Thee? In this poem she expresses three major ideas of love: the depth of her love, the many ways that she loves and the comparison between love and faith. Browning describes her unconditional, intense love that she feels, “l love thee to the depth, and breadth and height’ (439), for her companion. She uses the words “depth” and “breadth” and “height” to prove the extent that her love for him really goes.
This made me believe that she physically loves him and will do anything or him in her power. She also describes that her desire goes even past the physical aspect; that she can love him even deeper and beyond the just the exterior, “My soul can reach” (440). This goes to show how far here love truly spreads: mind, body and soul. She even describes her feelings of love going past her visually seeing it, “when feeling out of sight” (440), which makes me believe that her ability to love goes without limits.
Love is not only tangible; she can see and feel it regardless of the circumstances. Allison Booth explains hat alliteration (457), the repetition of consonants, is a formal feature that is used in this poem. She uses words that include: “purely’ and “Praise” (8), “passion” and “put” (9), and “love” and “lose” (11). The speaker implies that she is giving away her whole self to the one man that she loves, without question or a doubt in her mind. She brings across extremely strong emotions, feelings and goes to heights that some people could never even think of going.
She loves this man so dearly and that makes her who she is and will go to all lengths to show it. She tells the readers the many ways that she loves, “let me count the literally saying that she can list the ways how she loves. Initially, she tells the reader that she will be counting the ways in which she loves him throughout the rest of the poem. The speaker describes and expresses her special feelings for her love in an intriguing and almost calculating way. One way that the speaker describes how she loves was when she explains, “l love thee freely, as men strive for Right;” (440).
Men and women stand up for their country in war, law enforcement protect the immunities, and every day regular people are doing noble deeds that are not being asked of them to help one another. She is basically comparing her love for her man to the people who are doing good for themselves and others. Living a long and thriving life she says, “Smiles, tears of all my life! ” (440), describing that she has been through a lot, but her love for him overtakes everything she has been through.
From the moment she was born until after she dies she will go to every length to continue to have her love thrive. I can tell that the speaker has been through many ups and downs, eves and heartaches, but in the end her love overrides everything she has gone through. She compares her love to the Grace of God and reiterates the belief of how immeasurable her love is, “For the ends of Being and ideal Grace,” (440). She brings up the idea that her love is completely limitless because it extends out past her body and into her soul.
She associates her mortal body to the way that her love is unlimited, just like God. Associating her passion for love to the passion that Jesus Christ has for this followers she says, “l love thee with the passion put to use. ” (440). She tells that she still has he love as she has always had, “l love thee with a love seemed to lose with my lost saints,” which shows her maturity and evolution into adulthood. No matter how old she gets, her love will continue to grow with her and thrive dissimilar to young adults who lose faith as they get older.
She desperately wants to stay with her man on Earth and in Heaven, “-and, if God choose, shall but love thee better after death. ” (Lines 12-14) shows that even in death she will have the ability to forever love. The theme is that love is always present, regardless of if your living or in the after-life. This poem describes a love that is so passionate, true and pure that she will go to any length to show and describe it. Browning expresses the speakers love by repeating it often and going into great deal comparing it to other things to make it relatable to the readers.
After reading, I believe that this poem can make a person want to strive for this type of passionate love. She speaks of her soul, which is an abstract object, then speaks of candles, which are basic real object that is tangible. The candle light can be associated with love directly because of its lining of warmth and soothing feeling, while speaking of her soul brings across a morbid notion of how she prays that God will continue to let her love like this in the after-life.
She lists the different ways that she loves by describing that it can’t be measured because it has no beginning and no ending, she uses religious language suggesting spiritually and purity in her love, and emphasizes how strong her love is by indicating the sorrow that she has seen in the past.
