Sonnet 43 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 the breadth and the 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 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

"Un-confuse" it:

The sonnet is written by an English poet, Elizabeth Browning to her husband Robert Browning and is only one of the 44 she has written for him. She uses many literary techniques to get her idea across. The poem has an obvious rhyming scheme of an Italian sonnet with 12 lines. This is significant because at that time, English poets tend to write in Shakespearean sonnets but Elizabeth Browning had chosen to use the Italian sonnet instead. This then reflects to how love has no boundaries. This can also be seen through how she uses the word “thee” instead or he as “thee” has no gender linked to it and it shows how love has no limits as well.  Moreover, she uses the words “sun’ and “candle-light” in line 6 to show how love is something that we might not always know that it is there but it always is. The poem also uses an excessive amount of “th”. “th” is a soft sound, it is there but rarely heard which parallels to how love may sometimes be strong but it is still present now matter how much we do not see it. This is true on many levels to how our parents love each other, the children may not see it but the parents do love each other so very much. The iambic pentameter is broken in lines 2 and 5 thus adding more emphasis on them. These two lines are the “measurements” of love to, “depth and the breadth and height” and “level of every day’s”. This shows the volume of her love and that it has no capacity and that is how we should show our love. Moreover in society, there is an increase number of mixed race marriages. This also showing how Elizabeth Browning is trying to portray how love has absolutely no boundaries that we have to follow. This makes us think again to how love is treated.