The Modern "How Do I Love Thee?"

Modern Sonnet

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)

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.

Modern Sonnet Analysis

Elizabeth Browning's sonnet was written in the 1800s, yet it still has the makings of a modern sonnet. First of all, it is not clear who the poem is addressed to. Many, assumed that the poem was written to her husband Robert, whom she dearly loved. Robert was also a poet and he encouraged her work. However, one could easily argue that Browning wrote her poem to express her love for her art. Poetry helped her find her beloved husband and escape her overbearing father. Poetry empowered her life, and in the last lines of the sonnet, she expresses the hope that her poetry will be celebrated and remembered after her death. The ambiguity of the poem's muse is one of the many factors that make the sonnet not only a pleasure to read, but modern.

The first line employs an unconventional question-and-answer format, and repeated use of the phrase "I love thee." Browning adheres to the meter and the rhyme of a Shakespearian sonnet but in order to preserve her idea within the structure of the poem, she employs feats of syntax. For example, when Browning says "I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach," she means "I love thee to the depth, breadth, and heights my soul can reach." The first meaning, of this reversed phrase would be as a human being she can only provide limited love. Browning uses a triple syndetic listing or a twist in diction, to imply that she is trying to measure out her love. Yet, at the same time Browning is saying that as a human being she will love to her greatest capacity, and later alludes to the fact that she will be able to love without limit in the afterlife.

The poem also speaks directly to the reader; it is told in the second person as opposed to most sonnets that are told in the third person. Browning employs a series of metaphors which compare the purity and freedom of her love to lofty, abstract, ideals such as humility and morality. The lines are structured in an unconventional way, a way that brings out new relations and feelings for the reader instead of the same old clichés. Finally, the exclamatory tone adapted by Browning near the end of the poem allows her to burst forth with a surge of emotion that was building up throughout the poem. The poem describes love fully and powerfully, closing with an unexpected twist: the strengthening of love even in the face of death, a force that seems to sever all bonds. It is almost as if Browning wants her passion to reach the reader through the restrictions of the sonnet.

In syntax, diction and content, Browning has gone above and beyond the expectations of a standard Shakespearian love sonnet. In his 160^th sonnet, Shakespeare defines what true love is. Elizabeth Browning on the other hand, defines what it feels like to truly love someone or something. Through her metaphors, and alliterations, Browning paints a picture of the most deepest, most intense love. For this reason, Browning's sonnet still resonates powerfully with anyone who has fallen in love and therefore, takes on a modern quality.