How do I love thee… Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Hello again,
As I told you previously, I fell in love with the work of Elizabeth barret browning. This is the most loved and famous work of her. In this piece of work, she writes how she wants to love her Fiancé, Robert Browning.
Short story….Elizabeth and Robert fell in love through letters.It all started when Robert wrote a letter to Elizabeth praising her poetry ,he wrote“I love your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett,” and culminates with “I do, as I say, love these books with all my heart—and I love you too.” and then both exchanged number of letters describing the poems. When they finally met, after a short period of time, their courtship started and it was most romantic relationship. She remarked about Robert “growing to be the truest of friends.”
They exchange letters expressing the love to each other almost five hundred seventy five letters…. during the 20 months of courtship. Robert was the constant support and their love thrived. They decided to elope as Elizabeth’s father was never ready for that. To which Kathleen Blake wrote in her work ‘Love and the Woman Question in Victorian Literature’, Robert Browning was practically "a one-man refutation of virtually all of her anxieties."
After they moved to Florence, Elizabeth’s health improved and their love and marriage was beautiful. They had their son named Pen.
In 1861 Elizabeth died in Robert’s arm and Robert recalled by stating “she died smilingly , happily and with a face like a girl’s. Her last word was “ beautiful”. He never remarried.
How do I love thee..let me count the ways ….
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.
This love is spiritual. It starts from personal feeling to the spiritual relation…where she talks how she wants to love and it also talks about the life after death denoting the life long promise of love.It includes all the senses like smiles, tears, height and every part of world, like rights, faiths, grief and every single feeling around.
How can I love you — let me count the ways.
I love you to the depth,breadth and height.
Get Shrutika Choudhary’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
where my soul can reach, where even my sight can’t
for the end of one being and the ideal love and passion
I love you everyday
like the most need like sun in day and candlelight in night
I love you freely as men with rights
I love you purely as prayers
I love you with all my passion
with all old sadness and childhood’s dream or faiths
I love you with the love that seemed once to be lost(previous conflicts)
I love you with the breath,smiles, tears and all my life
and If God choose ,I will love you better after death.
the poet described every possible way physical ,emotional, spiritual. It includes the love from every angle, after every thing, conflicts ,griefs, happiness, childhood dreams. She wants to share every point with him and everyday till eternity.
This poem is the best dedication from a lover to his lover. Apart from everything,I will love you and I love you everyday.
