Let Me Count The Ways

'How Do I Honey Thee? Let Me Count the Ways,'or'Sonnet 43'is one of Browning's most famous poems. She is a renowned Victorian poet who managed to attain acclaim in her lifetime. She went on to influence many British and American poets, particularly Emily Dickinson. A prolific writer, Elizabeth Barrett Browning'southward poems came to the attention of some other famous poet of the fourth dimension, Robert Browning.

The two poets eventually married only were forced to wed secretly because of Barrett Browning's father. He found out about the nuptials and disinherited his daughter. Barrett Browning and her hubby moved to Italy, and both encouraged the other with their writings. She died in Italia at the historic period of 55.

Sonnet 43: How do I love thee? by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Summary

It is easily one of the most famous and recognizable poems in the English language. In the poem, the speaker is proclaiming her unending passion for her love. She tells her lover just how deeply her love goes, and she also tells him how she loves him. She loves him with all of her beings, and she hopes God will grant her the power to love him even after she has passed.

Themes

Browning engages with themes of love/devotion and relationships in'Sonnet 43'. From the first lines, it's articulate that this is going to exist a love poem. She addresses her listener, probable her husband Robert Browning, and tells him that there are many reasons why she loves him and that she'due south going to list them out. Equally the poem progresses the language becomes more than figurative with the poet making diverse nature-based comparisons in social club to depict her love accurately and movingly.

Death comes into the poem at the end every bit the speaker talks nearly the length and durability of their relationship. She hopes that God will allow her to love her partner even in decease. It becomes clear at the end that her love is a spiritual one equally much equally it is a romantic one.

Structure and Form

'Sonnet 43' is classified as a sonnet because it contains xiv lines of poetry and has a fixed rhyme scheme of abba abba cdcdcd. This is the traditional blueprint of a Petrarchan sonnet, one of the two major sonnet forms. (The other is the Shakespearean sonnet which rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG).The poem also makes utilise of the usual metrical design associated with standard sonnet forms, that is, iambic pentameter. this means that each line contains v sets of two beats. The first of these is unstressed and the second is stressed.

Literary Devices

In'Sonnet 43,'Browning makes apply of several literary devices. These include only are not limited to imagery, simile, and alliteration. The first of these is one of the near impactful literary devices that a poet can utilise. It can exist seen through the poet'south power to create images that appeal to or activate the reader's sense. These are things that tin can exist seen, touched, heard, or smelt in i's mind. A good case comes from these lines "I love thee to the level of every day'due south / Most quiet need, by sun and candle-calorie-free".

At that place is a great example of a simile in this line: "I love thee freely, as men strive for right". here, she compares the amount that she loves her partner to the strength with which men "strive" for what is right, or just.

Alliteration is an constructive device that's used to increase the overall rhythm and rhyme of a piece of verse. For example, "purely" and "praise" in line eight.

Speaker ofSonnet 43

I tin assume, although it is not 100% certain, that Browning is also the speaker of the poem since it is well known simply how deeply she and Robert Browning loved and cared for each other. The speaker is talking straight to her beloved in the sonnet; she uses personal pronouns such as "I" and "you."

Detailed Analysis

Based on the initial line, it appears that the speaker has been asked a question prior to reciting Sonnet 43. The starting time line as well serves as the motivation for the rest of the work. Barrett Browning writes,

How practice I dearest thee? Permit me count the means.

She then uses the last thirteen lines of the poem to show just how much she loves her husband.

Lines 2-4 of Sonnet 43 provide the first way in which the speaker loves her hubby. Barrett Browning writes,

I dear thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of being and platonic grace.

Here she is describing that her love is as deep and broad and alpine as it tin can possibly exist. It is and so deep and wide and alpine, in fact, that she cannot even "meet" the edges of it: information technology is infinite. Barrett Browning uses consonance in line two in order to convey just how much she loves her husband. The repetition of the "th" sound gives the line movement, which signifies that her dear for him is ongoing.

In the next two lines, Barrett Browning continues to show her married man how much she loves him. She writes,

I dearest thee to the level of every solar day'south

Almost quiet demand, by sun and candle-light.

These lines are especially lovely in their simplicity. While her beloved knows no bounds, the speaker besides loves her beloved in ordinary, everyday life. She needs him as much every bit she needs other bones necessities of life.

In lines 7 and viii, Barrett Browning writes of ii other ways she loves. She writes,

I dear thee freely, as men strive for right.

I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.

These lines of Sonnet 43 give an innate sense of feeling to her beloved. Just every bit men naturally strive to do what is good and right, she freely loves. In addition, she loves him purely, simply every bit men turn from praise in order to maintain humility. The speaker does not want thank you or attention for her love; just like skilful and merely men, she loves because it is what she has to do. Using these ii similes in these two lines strengthens the tone of beloved and admiration in the poem.

Barrett Browning continues with the pattern of showing how much she loves her husband. She writes,

I love thee with the passion put to utilise

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

Barrett Browning's wording here is interesting, particularly because she is taking the feelings she has nearly something relatively negative and comparison it to the feelings she has for her husband. Old griefs can exist defines as annihilation that a person passionately despises. She is telling her hubby here that she has as much passion for him as she does for those things in life that she just cannot stand up. She too loves him with the faith of a child, which is a particularly lovely line. Children's faith is usually steadfast and true. Just like a kid has religion, so, also, does the speaker have dear for her married man.

Barrett Browning continues with this religious motif in the next lines. She writes,

I love thee with a dear I seemed to lose

With my lost saints. I honey thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life…

Her "lost saints" is a reference to all of those people she once loved and adored in her life. The love she once felt for them, that she somewhen lost, has now been transferred into the beloved she feels for her married man. Additionally, she loves him with all that she is: her breath, her smiles, and her tears. Barrett Browning confesses that she loves her hubby with all that has fabricated upwardly her life.

Barrett Browning ends her poem by acknowledging that she is willing to love her married man forever if God chooses to allow her to do so. She writes,

…and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee amend after decease.

Not but will she love him well into eternity, she writes, just she will besides beloved him fifty-fifty ameliorate than she does presently. Her love will keep to abound with the passing of time, regardless of whether or not she or he is even so alive. The speaker's love for her married man is so strong that not even death could destroy it.

Historical Background

Elizabeth Barrett Browning barbarous in love with Robert Browning afterwards he reached out to her about her writing. The couple wrote letters back and forth to each other before finally marrying, knowing full well that the marriage would not be accepted past Barrett Browning'south father. Their marriage was not simply one filled with honey but also respect for each other'southward writings. The 2 were each other's biggest supporters, so information technology is no surprise that Barrett Browning would include this sonnet in her drove titled Sonnets From the Portuguese, so titled considering Robert Browning often referred to his wife as his little Portuguese.

Similar Poems

Readers should as well seek out Browning's other dearest poems, such as 'Sonnet 29' and'Sonnet 14'. Her husband, Robert Browning, also wrote some interesting love poems. These include 'Dearest in a Life'and'Parting at Morning'. Other poems that are related to Browning's'Sonnet 43,'include'I Said to Beloved'past Thomas Hardy,'Love Poem'by Elizabeth Jennings, and'The Definition of Love'by Andrew Marvell.