The poem "How Do I Love Thee" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning expresses her deep love for her future husband Robert Browning through beautiful metaphors. She describes loving him with the depths of her soul and in everyday aspects of life. Browning insists that even death will not stop her love for Robert, as she will continue loving him after death if God allows. The poem uses intimate language to convey the eternal nature of true love.

1. Elizabeth Barrette Browning
by
Indranil Sarkar
contact: 09859945270
How do I love Thee? Sonnet-43

2. How do I love Thee?[Sonnet-43]
 No female poet was held in
higher esteem among cultured
readers in both the United States
and England than Elizabeth
Barrett Browning during the
nineteenth century.
 Even in this 21st Century she is
remembered with admiration and
reverence for her humane and
feminist views.

3. Sonnet-43
 "My Little Portuguese”! Robert Browning used to address her
in this pet name and Elizabeth wrote in Sonnet-33 “Yes, call
me by my pet-name! let me hear”.
 Elizabeth Barrette Browning was one of the most prominent
Victorian rationale feminist poet.
 A humane and liberal attitude to life and living were
manifested in her poems.
 She was, to be very frank, "self-taught” in almost every
respect.
 Edgar Allen Poe called her "the noblest of her sex” and
borrowed the theme of his poem ‘Raven’ from her poem.

4. Elizabeth Barrette Browning (1806 – 1861)
Elizabeth Barrette Browning was
a feminist who dared to condemn
the silliness of the feminists in
the name of ‘Feminism’.‘
Sonnets from the
Portuguese’

5. Robert Browning
Robert Browning After reading "Lady Geraldine's
Courtship," Browning, in January 1845,
wrote a letter to Elizabeth which began, "I
love your verses with all my heart, dear
Miss Barrett.”
 The appreciation of her verse from one of
the most celebrated poets of the time
conquered the soul of Elizabeth and
England witnessed one of the most
romantic courtships in the following years.
 During this period of courtship Elizabeth
was engaged in composing love sonnets
which were published later under the title
"Sonnets from Portuguese” in 1850.
 The specialty of the present Sonnet is it’s
expression of love emotions from a
feminine plane. Before her, no poet had
explored/mapped the Female mind or
feminine standpoint. Right from Petrarch,
almost every sonneteer viewed love
emotions from the Male parameter.
 Even an iconoclastic Sonneteer like
William Shakespeare could not feel the
necessity of exploring love from a
feminine standpoint.

6. Works of Elizabeth Barrette Browning
 1820 : Elizabeth's father gets Battle of Marathon printed.
 1825 : "The Rose and Zephyr," her first published work, is published in
Literary Gazette.
 1826 : Publishes first volume of poems, An Essay on Mind, anonymously.
 1833 : Publishes Prometheus Bound, a translation from Greek playwright
Aeschylus, again anonymously.
 1838 : Publishes The Seraphim and Other Poems under her own name.
 1840 : She writes "De Profundis," articulating her grief; it will be published
posthumously. Additionally, she writes "Queen Annelida and False Arcite"
for an edition of poetry by Chaucer and "The Cry of the Children,"
attacking Child Labour.

7. Works of Elizabeth Barrette Browning
 1842: Publishes "The Cry of the Children." A popular work, it helps bring
about the regulation of Child Labour.
 1845: Elizabeth begins work on a series of love poems, Sonnets from the
Portuguese, named from Robert Browning's pet name for her, "the
Portuguese.“
 1850:Publishes a new two-volume edition of Poems that includes the
Sonnets from the Portuguese.
 1851:Publishes Casa Guidi Windows, a work about Italy, including political
reflections.
 1857:Publishes Aurora Leigh, a "novel in verse.
 1860:Publishes Poems Before Congress, a collection of political poems.
 1862:Posthumous publication of Last Poems, including "De Profundis."

8. 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.

9. Summary
 The prominent Victorian poetess, Elizabeth Barrette Browning, wrote
44 sonnets to express the courtship between herself and Robert
Browning, her love and would be husband.
 Elizabeth Barrett Browning in her love sonnet “How Do I Love Thee”
beautifully expresses her love for her future husband listing the
different ways in which she loves her beloved. She also insists that if
God permits, she will continue loving the love of her life even after
her death.
 “How Do I Love Thee” is a sensitive poem because of the reason
that the poetess here defines herself only in the ways she loves
Robert. Love is portrayed to be intangible; it can be felt even after
one settles in the cold grave.
Link: http://www.shareyouressays.com/97734

10. How do I love Thee?(Sonnet-43)
 Love according to Elizabeth is not an earthly concept because she loves
freely and purely without thinking about the why’s and how’s of love and
its future possibilities. Though both the lovers never met but still they
express their love for each other by the means of sharing poems and
this is obviously one of the poems they shared in the moments of their
love.
 Defining her love, by using a spatial metaphor, Elizabeth’s love extends
to heights of all the lengths and breadths that her pure soul could
possibly reach. She expresses her love for her husband to be from
every part of her soul and the poetess in the process is stretching out
her arms to show that he means the whole world to her.
 As it is said, the person addressed might be someone in the world but
for her that someone means the whole world. Her world revolves around
the love of her life and she insists that death can separate her from her
lover but it cannot separate her love for Robert.
http://www.shareyouressays.com/97734

11. How do I love Thee?(Sonnet-43)
 “How do I Love Thee?” is undoubtedly a simple poem with a deep
hidden meaning. Love is eternal, unconquerable and the highest
power in the world. Elizabeth loves her husband-to-be on a daily
basis instead of loving him for a few passionate moments.
 Her love is not a slave to momentary passion and this is proved
because she is in love with Robert without even meeting him. The
poetess, by no means, is seeking appraisal by the readers. She is
totally ravished by the all-pervading love. She is fully controlled by
the emotion of love both internally and externally. She has
completely lost control over her body, mind and soul.
 Elizabeth is also stressing on the fact that someone does not have to
pretend that they are morally or ethically good,. Goodness is
completely a matter of one’s own choice.
 Pure love and dedication are the two pillars on which this poem
stands and once again the poem proves the most cherished notion
that love is eternal and it is unaware of any boundaries.
Link: http://www.shareyouressays.com/97734

12. Sonnet-43
 Q. What type of tone is used in the poem "How Do I Love Thee”?
 Ans. The tone of the poem is the mood or feeling that its message conveys. This
sonnet is a simply a love poem, expressing how deeply she loves her husband. The
tone is intimate, loving, sincere.
 Q.What is the rhyme scheme of Sonnet-43?
 Ans. The rhyme scheme of "Sonnet 43" is as follows:
 Lines 1 to 8 : ABBA, ABBA;
 Lines 9 to 14 :CD, CD, CD.
 Petrarchan sonnet’s first eight lines are called an octave; the remaining six lines are
called a sestet. The octave presents the theme of the poem; the sestet concludes the
poem and offers a solution if there is a problem or provides an answer if there is a
question.
 In Elizabeth Browning’s "Sonnet 43”, the octave draws relationship between the
poet's love and religious and political ideals; the sestet draws relationship between the
power of love she felt while writing the poem and the power of love she experienced
earlier in her life.
 The author concludes the poem as saying that she will love her husband-to-be even
more after death.

13. Sonnet-43
 Paraphrase of the Poem:
Line 1. She loves this man in numerous ways, and would therefore need to count
them.
Line 2. Her love is as real as the three dimensions of all physical things.
Breadth: width - a measurement of how far across her love is.
Height - how high her love is.
Depth- how deep her love is.
Lines 3/4. She loves him will all of her soul and can not even describe how much. She
likens her love for this man as much as some one loves God.
Lines 5/6. She is comparing her love to our basic needs: air, water, food, shelter,
kinship, and love - which we need everyday, all the time - both day and night.

14. Sonnet-43
Line 7. She loves him not because someone told her to , but because of her own free
will. This love is needed as much as a man needs freedom in order to gain happiness
in life.
Line 8. She loves him without desire for praise, but for love itself.
Lines 9/10. She loves him as much as the intensity that suffering inflicts and with the
blind faith of a child.
Lines 11/12. She loves him with the same intense feeling as the innocence she lost as
she grew older.
Lines 13/14. She loves him with every breath she takes, every happiness and every
sadness of her life. She will love him forever, and if God wills, even after life on earth.
Her love for him will go on forever.