7/24/2019 Analysis on Elizabeth Browning's How Do I Love Thee

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Elica Marie R. Solon

HOW DO I LOVE THEE? LET ME COUNT THE WAYS.

Elizabeth Barrett 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 eeling out o sight

!or the ends o Being and ideal "race.I love thee to the level o everyday#s

Most $uiet need, by sun and candle%light.I love thee reely, as men strive or &ight'

I love thee purely, as they turn rom (raise.I love thee with a passion put to use

In my old gries, and with my childhood#s aith.I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

)ith my lost saints, %%% I love thee with the breath,*miles, tears, o all my lie+ %%% and, i "od choose,I shall but love thee better ater death.

(ersonally, I have long enoyed this poem. -he poem was introduced to me whenI was in my senior year in high school. I was at the height o my relationship with a guywho was to become the ather o my son. )e were together or more than a year duringthat time and this poem greatly described the eelings I had or my then%boyriend.-hining that he was to study at a dierent region, the romance became verypassionate. /nd on his return, the eelings heightened and became overwhelming. -hepoem, I believed and saw, was a great epitome o our lowering relationship.

-he speaer 0I1 opens the poem by speaing to the other 0lover1 telling him thatthere are dierent ways on how to 2describe3 the love the speaer eels or the otherone. I view this as me speaing to him, telling him that my love is true and it ise4pressive. I heavily relate to this part because I irmly believe that love should bee4pressed. I always mae it a point to say to someone why and how I can and will lovehim.

-he rich images set orth by Browning embodied my heart that was ull o loveand passion or another 0my e4%boyriend1. It started by e4pressing that her love isimmeasurable and that the 2depth and breadth and height my *56L can reach3embodies it. -he soul being an abstract noun 0no physical properties1, measuring such2love3 and 2passion3 then becomes impossible. -he same was true with how I elt bacthen 7 that my love or him was immeasurable and everlasting. I heavily relatedbecause I used to eel the deep passion or him not only physically but the eelings Ihave or him consumed all o me 0physically, mentally, spiritually, psychologically1.

-he speaer then proceeds with 2I love thee to the level o everyday#s most $uietneed, by sun and candle%light3, which was also very striing or me. I related to this linebecause I enoyed thining about him at night and day. -his line had the eect 0on me1that the speaer 0I1 day%dreamed about the signiicant other in the morning and at night.Moreover it is important to loo deeper into this line. 2I love thee to the LE8EL 5!

7/24/2019 Analysis on Elizabeth Browning's How Do I Love Thee

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E8E&9:/9;* M5*- it never shuts up. -he longing orpeace then becomes great.

I love thee reely3, so the poem goes. -his one becomes a hard one or me. /t

this time, my parents were very strict and een on rules. =5 B59!&IE=: 6=-IL05LLE"E1 "&/:6/-I5=. I loved him unfreely. It was a line I hungered. It wassomething that I dreamed o. It was a line that I obsessed over. I wanted to love himreely 7 to be able to wal on the streets without the ear o being caught, to be able tote4t him without hiding my phone and deleting his messages, to be able to be with himreely without ear. I had every right to be with him but we had to eep it hidden and thatwas very hard or us. I wanted to love him reely. I envied this line.

2I love thee purely, as they turn rom (raise.3 9es, I had nothing but love or himbac then. -his line says it all. I loved him. I loved every inch o him, rom the tip o hishair down to his very toes. I respected him. I protected him. I loved him purely. I hadorgiven and orgotten everything, without the slightest hint o anger and pain and

revenge. I loved him.2I love thee with a passion put to usein my old gries, and with my childhood#saith.3 /h. (assion. 9es, it was passionate indeed. -oo passionate it had gotten. I trustedhim ust as a child trusts an adult completely. I was passionate and in love. I hadorgotten reason 0a passion put to use in my old gries, childhood;s aith1 in loving him.

But what had really struc me most is how the speaer chose to heighten the endo the poem. -he end had the impression 0upon me1 that the eelings o the speaerwere not capable o being contained. It became lie a burst o energy sprung orth romthe sun. 2I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, o all my lie+3 -he speaer has ustpoetically stated that she loves the signiicant other with all o her. -his line perectlyportrayed the eelings that I had. It showed beautiully and graceully that the eelings

were consuming the very inch o the speaer. -he love was indeed overwhelming% thespeaer chooses to end the line with 2o all my lie3. -he speaer has viewed that loveas the reason or everything@ or every smile, or every breath, or every tear. -hesigniicant other is the reason 7 he is the destiny, the road that she was meant to travel.

/nd inally she e4presses that her love is orever. -hat she has already made upher mind to ind solace and peace and orever with him and his love. -hat she has givenup all reason, all ights, everything. -hat she lits up to the Lord the love and that puts in"od;s love the love that she has. -hat she is ever more willing to be with the signiicantother until the very end o days.

/nd I, how do I love thee? I loved thee as wide as the sy that holds up the stars.I loved thee as bright as the stars that shine rom billions o lightyears away. He lovedme as soon as the star;s light was $uicly orgotten.