2. • Also known as PETRARCHAN SONNET
• Named after 14-century Italian poet Francesco Petrarca.
• a 14-line poem that uses iambic pentameter and a somewhat flexible
rhyme scheme.
• somewhat flexible, means that the first eight lines, or octave, of a
Petrarchan sonnet almost always follows the same rhyme scheme:
abba abba
• The rhyme scheme of the last six lines, or sestet, of a Petrarchan
sonnet varies from poem to poem.
• . Some of the most common rhyme schemes for the sestet are
cdecde, cdcdcd, cddcdd, and cddece.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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,
8. Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
9. •A love sonnet written for Barett Browning’s fiancé, Robert
Browning
•It is a Petrarchan Sonnet:
• 14 lines divided into an octet, 8 lines, and a sestet of 6
lines.
• The volta (the turning point of the poem) comes in the 9th
line.
• The poem expresses her intense love, comparing her love
to something spiritual and sacred.
10. •This poem is classified as a sonnet because it contains
fourteen lines of poetry and has a fixed rhyme scheme
of abba abba cdcd cd. One can assume that Barrett
Browning is also the speaker of the poem, since it is
well known just how deeply she and Robert Browning
loved and cared for each other. The speaker is talking
directly to her beloved in the sonnet; she uses personal
pronouns such as “I” and “you.”
11. •Based on the initial line, it appears that the speaker
has been asked a question prior to reciting the
poem. The first line also serves as the motivation
for the rest of the work. Barrett Browning writes,
“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” She
then uses the last thirteen lines of the poem to
show just how much she loves her husband.
12. 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.
13. • Lines 2-4 of the poem provide the first way in which the speaker
loves her husband.
• Here she is describing that her love is as deep and wide and tall
as it can possibly be. It is so deep and wide and tall, in fact, that
she cannot even “see” the edges of it: it is infinite. Barrett
Browning uses consonance in line two in order to convey just
how much she loves her husband. The repetition of the “th”
sound gives the line movement, which signifies that her love for
him is ongoing.
14. I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
15. •In the next two lines, Barrett Browning continues to
show her husband how much she loves him. She
writes, “I love thee to the level of every day’s/Most quiet
need, by sun and candle-light.” These lines are
particularly lovely in their simplicity. While her love
knows no bounds, the speaker also loves her beloved in
ordinary, everyday life. She needs him as much as she
needs other basic necessities of life.
16. I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
17. •In lines seven and eight, Barrett Browning writes of
two others ways she loves.
•She writes, “I love thee freely, as men strive for
right. I love thee purely, as they turn from
praise.” These lines give an innate sense of
feeling to her love.
18. •Just as men naturally strive to do what is good and right, she
freely loves. In addition, she loves him purely, just as men turn
from praise in order to maintain humility. The speaker does
not want thanks or attention for her love; just like good and just
men, she loves because it is what she has to do. Using these
two similes in these two lines strengthens the tone of love and
adoration in the poem.
19. 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.
20. •Barrett Browning continues with the pattern of showing how
much she loves her husband. She writes, “I love thee with the
passion put to use/In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s
faith.” Barrett Browning’s diction here is interesting,
particularly because she is taking the feelings she has about
something relatively negative and comparing it to the feelings
she has for her husband. Old griefs can be defines as
anything that a person passionately despises.
21. •She is telling her husband here that she has as
much passion for him as she does for those things
in life that she just cannot stand. She also loves
him with the faith of a child, which is a particularly
lovely line. Children’s faith is usually steadfast and
true. Just like a child has faith, so, too, does the
speaker have love for her husband.
22. •Barrett Browning continues with this religious motif in
the next lines. She writes, “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…” Her “lost saints” is
a reference to all of those people she once loved and
adored in her life.
23. •The love she once felt for them, that she eventually lost,
has now been transferred into the love she feels for her
husband. Additionally, she loves him with all that she is:
her breath, her smiles, and her tears. Barrett Browning
confesses that she loves her husband with all that has
made up her life.
