Elizabeth Barrett Browning: A argument of "How Do I Love Thee?"

"How Do I Love Thee?" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning was written in 1845 while she was being courted by the English poet, Robert Browning. The poem is also titled Sonnet Xliii from Sonnets From the Portuguese.

Early Experiences

Mother To Daughter Poems

Elizabeth Barrett was born in Durham England in 1806, the first daughter of affluent parents who owned sugar plantations in Jamaica. She was home-schooled and read voraciously in history, doctrine and literature. Young Elizabeth learned Hebrew in order to read customary Bible texts and Greek in order to read customary Greek drama and philosophy. She began writing poems when she was 12 years old, though she did not publish her first variety for an additional one twenty years.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning: A argument of "How Do I Love Thee?"

From an Exiled King to His Forgotten Princess Best

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From an Exiled King to His Forgotten Princess Overview

A magnificently written three hundred line poem from a father to his daughter, passing down knowledge and wisdom. He requests forgiveness for his inabilities and passions. Thought provoking and beautifully imagined!

From an Exiled King to His Forgotten Princess Specifications

A magnificently written three hundred line poem from a father to his daughter, passing down knowledge and wisdom. He requests forgiveness for his inabilities and passions. Thought provoking and beautifully imagined!

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Elizabeth Barrett industrialized a serious respiratory ailment by age 15 and a horse riding urgency shortly thereafter left her with a serious spinal injury. These two condition problems remained with her all of her life.

In 1828 her mother died and four years later the house business faltered and her father sold the Durham estate and moved the house to a coastal town. He was stern, protective, and even tyrannical and forbid any of his children to marry. In 1833 Elizabeth published her first work, a translation of Prometheus Bound by the Greek dramatist Aeschylus.

A few years later the house moved to London. Her father began sending Elizabeth's younger brothers and sisters to Jamaica to help with the house business. Elizabeth was distressed because she openly opposed slavery in Jamaica and on the house plantations and because she did not want her siblings sent away.

Early Writing

In 1838 Elizabeth Barrett wrote and published The Seraphim and Other Poems. The variety took the form of a classical Greek tragedy and expressed her deep Christian sentiments.

Shortly thereafter, Elizabeth's poor condition prompted her to move to Italy, accompanied by her dear brother Edward, whom she referred to as "Bro." Unfortunately he drowned a year later in a pilotage urgency and Elizabeth retuned to London, seriously ill, emotionally broken, and hopelessly grief-stricken. She became reclusive for the next five years, confining herself to her bedroom.

She continued to write poetry, however, and published a variety in 1844 naturally titled, >Poems. It was also published in the United States with an introduction by Edgar Allan Poe. In one of the poems she praised one of the works of Robert Browning, which gained his attention. He wrote back to her, expressing his admiration for >Poems.

Robert Browning

Over the next twenty months Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning exchanged 574 letters. An admiration, respect, and love for each other grew and flourished. In 1845 Robert Browning sent Elizabeth a telegram which read, "I love your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett. I do, as I say, love these books with all my heart - and I love you too." A few months later the two met and fell in love.

Inspired by her love for Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett wrote the 44 love poems which were collected in Sonnets From the Portuguese and which were at last published in 1850. Her growing love for Robert and her capability to express her emotions in the sonnets and love poems allowed Elizabeth to escape from the oppression of her father and the depression of her recluse.

Her father strongly opposed the relationship so she kept her love affair a underground as long as possible. The incorporate eloped in 1846 and her father never forgave her or spoke to her thereafter.

Move to Italy

Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her husband, Robert, went to Pisa, Italy and soon settled in Florence where she spent the rest of her life, with occasional visits to London. Soon Elizabeth's condition improved adequate to be able to give birth to the couple's only child, Robert.

In 1850 she published Sonnets From the Portuguese. Some have speculated that the title was chosen to hide the personal nature of the sonnets and to imply that the variety was a translation of earlier works. However, Robert's pet name for Elizabeth was "my minute Portuguese," a reflection on Elizabeth's darker, mediterranean complexion, possibly inherited from the family's Jamaican ties.

While living in Florence, Elizabeth Barrett Browning published 3 more requisite works. She addressed Italian political topics and some other unpopular subjects, such as slavery, child labor, male domination, and a woman's right to intellectual freedom. Though her popularity decreased as a corollary of these choices, she was read and heard and recognized throughout Europe. She died in Florence in 1861.

<b>The Poem, "How Do I Love Thee?"

Sonnet Xliii, "How Do I Love Thee?" is probably Elizabeth Barrett Browning's most popular love poem. It is heartfelt, romantic, loving, elegant, and simple. It is also quite memorable.

The love poem starts with the question, "How Do I Love Thee?" and proceeds to count the ways. Her Christian spirituality testifies that she loves Robert "to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach." She then professes seven more ways that she loves Robert. Her "passion put to use in my old griefs" refers to the depth of her former despair. The love that "I seemed to lose with my lost saints" refers to the lost loves of her mother and her brother.

The love poem ends with the announcement that time and death will not diminish her love for Robert because "if God choose, I shall but love thee best after death."

How Do I Love Thee

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 everyday's

Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.

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 best after death.

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