Analysis of the Story:

SONNET 43 a piece by Elizabeth Barret Browning

Elizabeth Barret Browning
She was born March 6 of 1806 in Kelloe, Durham, England
She started writing poetry at the age of 10
She had a lung illness that lasted her whole life
She wrote 44 Sonnets before marrying Robert Browning
She was the first of her family to be born in England in over 200
years
She died in 1861
She was part Creole
Elizabeth's volume Poems (1844) brought her great success
She is remembered for such poems as "How Do I Love Thee?"
(Sonnet 43, 1845) and Aurora Leigh (1856).
Structure:
The sonnet is considered a regular sonnet consisting of 14 lines
but does not follow any of the rules regarding Shakespearian and
Petrarchan sonnets.
Themes:
LOVE and ADMIRATION
- The sonnet was writtern for her fianc, Robert Browning. The
sonnet expresses her intense love, comparing her love to
something spiritual and sacred
LANGUAGE and COMMUNICATION
- "How do I love thee?" is a poem about its own poetic nature, a
list and catalog of all the different ways of loving that the
speaker experiences. It's very important to this speaker to find
phrases, metaphors, and language that can encapsulate her
love, so that she can communicate its complexity to the beloved
and to the reader.
IDENTITY
- In "How do I love thee?", the speaker defines herself entirely
through the ways in which she loves someone else. Love for
another becomes the foundation of her existence. In fact, we
think this speaker might go so far as to say "amo, ergo sum" I
love, therefore I am. She certainly wouldn't be the speaker of the
poem without her love, or her beloved!
MORTALITY

The speaker in "How do I love thee?" is determined to carry her

love for "thee" beyond the grave, as long as God lets her. In fact,
something as violent and destructive as death will only heighten
her passion she hopes!

Message:
This sonnet is a channel for the speaker to describe how much
she loves the person the sonnet is for. In this case, Elizabeths
love to Robert. She loves him in 2 basic ways: Real (down to
earth and equal) and Ethereal (she looks up to him and respects
him- which is reciprocated)
The form of the sonnet, which is rule bending, is also a
symbolism for it poses the unpredictability of the pattern. This
unpredictability defines what love is meaning that it is
unpredictable and surprising.
How do I love thee?
Analysis:
It is a rhetorical question that is stated to the person the
speaker loves. It is connoted to her struggle of remembering all
the things the speaker loves about the person.
Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
Analysis:
It is stated in internal rhyme and assonance. The speaker
cannot express her love because it bears greatness and spans as
wide as she could imagine. Shes trying to say that her love for
the person has no limits. It is a semantic field of measurement
and stretch.
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
Analysis:
Like the 2nd Line interpreted, it is a form of semantic
measurement but in this case, a non-physical measurement.
I love thee to the level of every days
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

The repetition of
the words I love
thee in the
beginning of
each sentence is
called an
anaphora which
is a device used
in the bible. It
made the sonnet
seem like a
prayer. This
enhances her
religious imagery

Analysis:
A metaphor where the sun represents the day and the
candle light represents the night. This goes to show that she
would love him day and night and endlessly.
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

A Simile meaning
she loves the
person purely,
strongly and
passionately

Analysis:
She believes in the passion and purity of her love
thus connecting it with good deeds and moral living.
This also an alliteration.
In my old griefs, and with my childhoods faith.
Analysis:
His love helps her forget her past troubles. This also
showed how much her childish beliefs were casted aside because
of the realness of his love.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Analysis:
This shows the devotion of her love.
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
Analysis:
Conveys that through joys and sorrows, she will still love
him forever. This also shows her respect for religion.
I shall but love thee better after death.
She tried to declare that her love would not be bound on
earth and that she would keep her promise (aka wedding vows)
of loving him till death do them part.

Important Notes:
Enjambment throughout creates a flow- to show how her love
continues and cant be stopped.
The repetition keeps the reader focused on what the speaker is
trying to convey.
The assonance, internal rhyme, alliteration and repetition gives
the sonnet a rhythm, makes words easier to remember and gives
a connection to other lines in the poem.
Moral Lessons:

Love is encompassing. You cant escape it; it blinds you and

confuses you. It is intense and it can change you. It also shows how
love is more about giving than taking. It also implores us to love
unconditionally for it is only through this that we can experience the
bliss of being in love.
Significance:
It is an eye opener to people of this generation who take love
lightly. It tries to tell us how much love is misunderstood and
generalized when the truth of the matter is that it is simply to big to be
defined.