BY E L I Z A B E T H B A R R E T B R O W N I N G ( 1 8 0 6 - 1 8 1 6 )

HOW DO I LOVE THEE?

BACKGROUND

• Born in Durham, England, was the oldest of twelve children and daughter of a strict father, Edward Barrett Moulton Barrett, who owned sugar plantations in Jamaica. • When fifteen, Elizabeth suffered a spinal injury

caused by saddling a pony, and became addicted to pain relievers. • Being weak, she was sent with her brother

Edward to the sea of Torquay, where her brother drowned to death, causing her to be emotionally broken.

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• All the while she had been deep in reading and writing poetry, and she had published some anonymous works which received much unexpected praise. She continued to write, despite her depressed state, but refused to leave her house for the next five years.• During this time, she produced a collection known

as Poems, which caught the eye of a poet who she had mentioned in her poems, Robert Browning.

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• The two privately exchanged over 500 love letters in the subsequent months, Elizabeth’s poems being classified as “Sonnets from the Portuguese,” ranked among the most famous collections of love lyrics in English history. One of these poems was known as “How Do I Love Thee?”

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• It is addressed to her husband, who used to call her 'My little Portuguese" as she was dark.

HOW DO I LOVE THEE?BY ELIZABETH BARRET BROWNING

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.I love thee to the depth and breadth and heightMy soul can reach, when feeling out of sightFor the ends of Being and ideal Grace.I love thee to the level of everyday’sMost quiet need, by sun and candle-light.I love thee freely, as men strive for Right.I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.I love thee with the passion put to useIn my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.I love thee with a love I seemed to loseWith my lost saints, – I love thee with the breath,Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and, if God choose,I shall but love thee better after death.

STRUCTURE

• Sonnet • Petrarchan (but does not follow normal

structure)• There is no clear break between octave

and sestet.• Begins with a rhetorical

question.• Rest of the poem answers

the question.

Petrarchan sonnet structure

ABBA

ABBA

CDE

CDE

STATEMENT

COUNTER – STATEMENT

First quatrain (4 lines)

SecondQuatrain(4 lines)

First tercet

First tercet

Turn/volta – a change in direction of argument or narrative

TITLE

• The question in the title and the first line: 'How do I love thee?' The poet dedicates the rest of the

poem to answering her own question and expressing the ways in which she loves her partner.

THEMES

• True love overcomes all and is eternal in nature.

• True love can be profound, deep and moving; a spiritual experience.

• The expression of love for anotherperson can lift life above the mundane.

• There is hope that great love existsbeyond the grave; that a truly great love can never die.

TONE AND MOOD

• Sincere, passionate, idealistic. She shares her feelings honestly and openly.

ANALYSIS OCTAVE

LINE 1 -2

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

Repeated; (anaphora) builds rhythm, emphasises love/infatuation with partner

Hyperboleexaggeration reinforces the poet’s intense belief in the extent of her love

Enjambment (increases pace)– love reaches far and wide

Rhetorical QDoes not expect answer – speaker lists the ways

LINE 3 - 4

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sightFor the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

• Personification and Apostrophe

- spiritual/religious words 'grace', 'praise', 'saint' and 'God‘ - woman's love is deep and true, compares with God’s grace

• Finds the goal of being alive

• Capital letters – strong feelings toward religion.

• Not trapped by limits of body

has feelings of love beyond her scope of vision (spiritual realm)- beyond what she can see or perceive.

LINE 5 - 6

I love thee to the level of everyday’sMost quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

• Metonymy• connotation of night and

day - loves her partner not only during the day but during the dark hours of the night too

• Love is continuous

Entire day is spent with partner in mind

Merely breathing – needs to love him like need to breathe

Alliteration of “l” sound

LINE 7 - 8

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right.I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

Alliteration of “p” spoundnot compelled or forced to

love, own intention.

• slavery occurring during the 19th century, not all men have equal rights.

• Strife for justice and fairnessNot corrupt, does not

expect praise

“Right” and “Praise = Personification and Apostrophe

ANALYSIS SESTET

LINE 9 - 10

I love thee with the passion put to useIn my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.

Jesus’s suffering is referred to in Christian faith as The Passion

intensity equal to that experienced during suffering or mourning

sense of love is idealistic and unchallenged, blind faith like a child

LINE 11 - 12

I love thee with a love I seemed to loseWith my lost saints, – I love thee with the breath,

• Alliteration of “l” sound

• She loves her husband the same as she loved her dead mother and brother.

Euphemism- Reference to speaker’s dead mother and brother Edward

LINE 13 - 14

Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and, if God choose,I shall but love thee better after death.

No matter what, love will always be strong

• If God wills to put both in Heaven, or both in Hell, at least they will be able to be with each other in order to love after death.

• After death, if it is even physically possible and if God chooses her to have the ability, then she will choose to love Robert more after her death.

ANSWERS

1. The poet loves with her whole soul. She loves him for fulfilling her completely, every hour of the day. She loves him honourably. She loves him without asking for flattery or “praise”. She loves him with all the emotion she experienced when she lost people se loved. She loves him with a love she believes , with God’s will, will last for all eternity.

2. a Metonymy b Sun implies day – sunlight being associated with and representing day. Candlelight implies night - a need for artificial light.

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3. “Depth” ; “breadth”; “height”4. The word suggests the higher ideals of human

beings; the belief in things that are honourable; acting according to one’s conscience.

5. False, she knows exactly because she says “let me count the ways” and she then goes on to list them.

6. B