How do I love thee?

How do I love thee? Can I paraphrase the ways?

I love thee beyond the depth length height and breadth of angel songs on heaven
high!

I love thee as My Soul Aches For You when feeling out of sight.

I love thou soul as the Beginning and end of being and ideal grace.

I love thee past the level of everyday's simple joy, anguish and each worker’s toil.

I love thee in the most quiet moment of sun and moon-light hours.

I love thee freely, as determined feminists strive for Right.

I love thee most Purely, as the Holy turn from Praise.

I love thee with a fervor that is Beyond the level that hell can raize!

I love thee with a Passion I seemed to lose with my lost Saints.

I love thee beyond the breath, smiles, and tears of my whole life!

And be it God’s will, I shall love thee

more still after my

last breath.

Paraphrased from Sonnets from the Portuguese XLIII. "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways..."
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

© 2011, All rights reserved, Amelia