Jennifer Pilato, '04

West Chester University

An explication of "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways"

            Writing can be an expression of one's innermost feelings.  It can allow the reader to tap into the deepest recesses of one's heart and soul.  It is indeed the gifted author that can cause the reader to cry at her words and feel hope within the same poem.  Many authors, as well as ordinary people use writing as a way to release emotions.

            Through poetry and sonnets, as with every other genre of writing, emotions can be expressed very deeply.  A sonnet, a fourteen-lined poem and a formal arrangement of rhymes, gives an author a lyrical way to express him or herself.  Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese is a great example of how one poet releases her emotions through writing.  Even though love cannot be measured in numbers Elizabeth uses this sonnet to try to express the depth of her love for Robert Browning.  The opening line of Sonnet 43 may seem ridiculous to some by trying to measure love mathematically.  Romance is one of the most popular themes of poetry.  Love can inspire the most soulful and often sorrowful of words because of the intensity of the emotion. 

            Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese, first appeared in an 1850 collection and was named after her husband's pet name for her, "Portuguese".  Sonnets from the Portuguese describe the intense emotions Elizabeth has for Robert, even though she feels somewhat undeserving of his love.  Elizabeth had to keep her feelings to herself for so many years and this poetry allows her some release.

            Sonnet 43 of the Sonnets from the Portuguese is one of Elizabeth's most famous poems.  Sonnet 43, "How do I love thee?  Let me count the ways,” describes "the entirety of Elizabeth's love for Robert.  It is the epitome of her expression of love" (Derochea).  Elizabeth finds it difficult to put one kind of measurement or barrier on the capacity of her heart's love for Robert.  It is a never ending, infinite love.  This love contains every emotion imaginable and grows consistently, even beyond her time here on Earth.  Through the use of metaphors, the audience learns that Elizabeth compares her depth of love for Robert to such things as a soldier fighting for freedom.  Poetically, Elizabeth says, "I love thee freely, as men strive for Right/I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise."  Her love for Robert is relentless and with great purpose.  She believes in true love having no limits.  The heart and soul has no restraints, not even death.  Elizabeth also alludes to the fact that we must always strive to fight for our love and keep it strong.  We must not take love for granted or become complacent.  Elizabeth associates romantic love with common decency and virtues.  This is important in her writing because it shows the passion that Elizabeth has in her heart. 

            Sonnet 43 does not take place in one particular setting, but in Elizabeth's heart and those hearts that it touches.  She concentrates on dimensions of love and feelings, rather than actual physical setting.  Elizabeth answers her well-known question, "How do I love thee?", letting her audience know that love does not reside in one specific place but all over our world.  Whomever and whatever Elizabeth comes in contact with, is blessed by her love.  For example, she explains, "I love thee to the depth and breadth and height/My soul can reach…I love with the breath, smiles, tears of all my life!"  These lines describe the fact that Elizabeth believes there are no limits to what the human soul and heart can feel.  Though Elizabeth and her feelings are at center of this poem, it reaches those who have ever been touched by love and those who dream of it.  Sonnet 43 pulls the reader in, to feel the depth of Elizabeth's love for Robert through her powerful and firm declarations. 

            Sonnet 43 lets the reader picture the vastness of Elizabeth's love for Robert, through images.  Elizabeth uses such words as depth and breadth, life and death, and night and day (sun and candlelight), to show the enormity and vastness of love. 

            Writing the Sonnets from the Portuguese, a poem about love and hope, Elizabeth allows society to truly understand her deepest feelings.