How Do I Love Thee?

Many lovers’ favorite classic poem or sonnet is “How Do I Love Thee?” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Here it goes..

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
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.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most 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 use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With 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.”

“How Do I Love Thee” is a sensitive poem because of the reason that the poetess here defines herself only in the ways she loves Robert. She was married to writer Robert Browning and it is believed the poem “How Do I Love Thee?” was addressed to him. Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 – 1861) was an English poet belonging to the Romantic movement. She achieved popularity for her poetry during her lifetime, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States.

The theme of Barrett Browning’s poem is that true love is an all-consuming passion. The quality of true love the poet especially stresses is its spiritual nature. True love is an article of faith. Love is portrayed to be intangible; it can even be felt even after one settles in the cold grave.

`Thee’ has been used for the God in the poem. The poet appeals to God to make his county free from every kind of discrimination, fear, illogical thinking an superstition.

Arguably, one of the most famous opening lines of a poem in English literature—“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways”—the speaker embarks on a project of listing the ways in which she loves her beloved. The poem thus begins as a means of attempting to justify love in rational terms.

The poem represents the speaker’s monologue where she describes her love. The first line of the poem starts with the question “How do I love thee?” which suggests the speaker has either been asked the question by her lover or she is thinking out loud. She then announces she will answer the question by saying “let me count the ways”

Her main idea of How Do I Love Thee?, I love 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 eventually lost, has now been transferred into the love she feels for her husband. Losing one’s saints could therefore mean to lose faith in the holy virtues of faith that saints represent. If the speaker has indeed lost their faith, it was only temporary—the love for their beloved has restored the spiritual love they “seemed to lose.

The meaning of “How Do I Love Thee” is that the speaker’s love is so deep and true that it will continue after death. The speaker opens the sonnet with the question of how the speaker loves the love interest, the listener, and then proceeds to answer by describing the speaker’s love.

The speaker concludes the sonnet by telling her husband that if God will allow her, she will love him even more after she is gone.

The quality of true love the poet especially stresses is its spiritual nature. True love is an article of faith. References to “soul,” “grace,” “praise,” “faith,” “saints,” and “God” help create this impression.

In conclusion, poetess Elizabeth Barrett Browning describes her love freely and purely. When she says, “I love thee freely, as men strive for right,” she means that she loves without hesitation and with good intentions, comparing it to how men strive for what is right. ### -By Anonymous Editorialist