The poem I am choosing to analyze is “How do I love thee?” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. In her sonnet Mrs. Browning is expressing her unconditional love for her husband and God. The overall theme of the poem is intense love, it is also an Italian sonnet, and a lyric poem. Lyric poems are poems that have a lot of emotion, sparks your imagination, and has a melody, rather like a song.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet is incredible and it touches your soul. It is extremely deep and most of it you have to really think about. In her first sentence “how do I love thee? Let me count the ways,” she explains that her love is so tremendous that she would have to count the number of ways she loves and the way she loves is so abundant. In her second sentence “I love thee to the depth and breadth and height,” her love is real and three dimensional. When she says breadth she is really saying width, the measurement of her love. When she says height and depth she is talking about how far down and how far across her love is. In the sentence, “My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight.” These measurements, though corporal are also spiritual, as they relate to her soul, which is body and spirit.
In sentence number four, ‘Four the ends of Being and ideal Grace” She measures the physical and partialness of her soul from life to the end of her existence. When she speaks of ideal Grace I believe she is referring to God and to the great gift of the experience Love and Happiness. She relates her love for her husband to the love she has for her husband. “ I love thee to the level of every day's,” meaning that her love is the same everyday and is compared to the actual needs she requires on a everyday basis.
‘Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight,” which is required day and night.
In line seven she states, “I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;” which is my favorite line in the sonnet. This sentence explains love and why it is so tremendous.
She loves him...