How Do I Love Thee? By Elizabeth Barrett Browning: A Poetry Analysis

Going back to my tried and true formula, it's time to analyze another sonnet.

poem:
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.

analysis:
Now that I think about it, this poem should have been compared with Sonnet 18 by Shakespeare, because I seem to love short things. Short songs, short poems, short people... actually let's not talk about the short people. How Do I Love Thee is a sonnet, written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and although the title doesn't stand out in any way, from what I saw, Browning makes poems that have inconspicuous titles, but are well written and usually have religious references. Well, Sonnet 43 has all of those qualities.

The most basic summary of this sonnet is that it is about a (presumably female) person confessing their love to another one, claiming that their love is a life necessity, and that her love is free and pure. So far, the poem lacks depth, and reads like a love letter, which certainly isn't a bad thing. One of the most famous poems of all time is Shall I Compare Thee, which I already scrutinized. But, after the tenth line, the poem enters the deep end of the proverbial pool. The speaker mentions that she is is loving with "the passion put to use in my old griefs, and with my childhoods faith", making bold statements to really drive the message home. But the last four lines take the poem into another realm entirely. "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.". As I mentioned earlier, Browning does weave in some religious imagery, and this is no exception. As I see it, the speaker is using the "fire" used to burn past issues to ignite a love-spark (yes that sounds cheesy). And the speaker has hinted that she is a former Christian, and will treat her lover like she used to love her faith.

My connection with this poem isn't related to love or faith. Its related to competition. Like the speaker, I too have used my past losses to ignite a fire in me that fuels me to do better every day. Whether that fire burn in my mind, my heart or my body, I can also connect to the loss of faith in religion. I was raised in a very religious family. But, as I grew older, I felt like my love for Jesus started to slip as I grew older, due to all the intellectuals around me. I did grow up in the gifted system. Now I'm going to end this before it gets too emotional.