How do I love Thee?

Sonnet 43

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Born on March 6, 1806, at Coxhoe Hall, Durham, England, Elizabeth Barrett

Browning was an English poet of the Romantic Movement. Educated at home, Elizabeth
apparently had read passages from Paradise Lost and a number of Shakespearean plays,
among other great works, before the age of ten. By her twelfth year, she had written her first
"epic" poem, which consisted of four books of rhyming couplets. Elizabeth's Sonnets from
the Portuguese, dedicated to her husband and written in secret before her marriage, was
published in 1850. Critics generally consider the Sonnets—one of the most widely known
collections of love lyrics in English—to be her best work. Her notable works are “Aurora
Leigh” “Casa Guidi Windows” “Poems Before Congress”

Sonnets from the Portuguese, is a collection of 44 love sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett

Browning, published in 1850. She presented this volume of sonnets to her husband, poet
Robert Browning, in 1847. The poems record the early days of their relationship. The speaker
begins the poem by asking a question to her own self about how she loves her beloved,
"How do I love thee?" the pronoun "thee" is used in an old-fashioned form of the second-
person pronoun "you". Later she firmly declares to answers her questions "Let me count the
ways." She thus sets up her organized list of the reasons why and how she loves her beloved
almost like an argument or rational debate rather than a spontaneous expression of feeling.
She has limitless love and yet she has compared it to the depth, breadth and height her soul
can reach. Ultimately, the speaker’s romantic love does not compromise her love for God.
Rather, she likens her romantic love to a religious experience that helps her recall her feeling
which she believes to bring her closer to God and “ideal grace.” She prays that God’s
salvation in heaven will perfect her earthly love and render it eternal. In this way, the poem
argues that romantic love is closely related to many things and indeed perhaps transforms into
love.

She further explains that she is desperate and indeed addicted to her love like every day’s
need like sun and moon, representing eternity. Her love is full of genuineness and free of
coast, just like the passionate men struggle for the righteousness in life, she doesn’t expect
much from her love or her lover, as she is overjoyed by its presence in her life she assures
that she will continue to love her beloved, just like passionate and true men who don’t expect
any praise for their work. She explains that she is intoxicated by her love just like an old
painful memory, which is going to last with her, the comparison doesn’t end here, she
proceeds to tell that her love is like that of a child’s faith, enriched with innocence and
modesty. Towards the conclusion the poet promises that she loves with all she has, like tears,
smiles and breath. In the last lines she confirms that she shall continue to love her beloved
even after her death. The poet thus argues that true love is eternal, surpassing space, time,
and even death. The poem also reveals a tension between love as an attachment to earthly life
and the things of this world, and love as something that transcends life on earth.
 The Laboratory-

Robert Browning

The poem was first published in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics in 1845, is most notable for
the high spirits of the writing. The rhyme scheme of the poem is regular, with an ABAC
structure that makes each short stanza with its own content and it has dramatic break in last
line. The structure of the poem captured well enough to understand the trauma that is
bestowed by the voice of a betrayed woman and we see that this woman is cheered by more
than just revenge; she is fortified by the power that killing allows her to have. When she first
mentions her untrue beloved, she only mentions one woman, but a few stanzas later, she
mentions both "Pauline" and "Elise" as targets. She is already being taken away with the
potential to kill. While the rhyme scheme is regular, the stress that she is willing to lose a bit
of control, letting this impulse take her. Further, if winning her lover back were the only goal,
she would not take so much pleasure in the prospect of causing painful death to the lover of
his beloved man and cause torment to him. We get to know her intense focus on the
ingredients further confirms the ecstasy she feels at suddenly giving herself over to this
wickedness. That this poison will cost her "whole fortune" only confirms the choice that she
has, that she is willing to forsake all her better life with this misconduct and be forever
defined by this act. In closing lines she narrates that “next moment I dance at the King's," the
poem implies her intent to carry herself as a woman who has accomplished a great deed.

She considers herself a "minion," which probably means a lady-in-waiting or some low-level
servant or probably it could mean that she is a small person , whereas her competitors are not
so lowly or as small as she is thus she is very much sure that the droplet of a poison cannot
bring a great harm to her enemy. That her beloved is involved with them and that both expect
that the speaker is grieving away in an "empty church" is the worst offense. She is considered
less worthy than them, which only strengthens her resolve to demonstrate her superiority
through the murder. Further, as her lover and opponents all know that she is aware of the
relationship; it is possible that they do not even know they are offending her in any way

The poem presents the madness and the capability of a vengeful woman and what harm she
can cause if she’s taken as a lesser to her enemy/ the new lover of her beloved In the same
way that the bright, pretty poison will ultimately cause painful death, so does the allure of
sexuality have a dark side. Sexuality is certainly behind whatever actions have led this
woman to the apothecary, but note her willingness to use it on the apothecary in the final
stanza, when she tells him, "You may kiss me, old man, on my mouth if you will!" Certainly,
Browning is no prude and we should not read a moral message in this, but rather read it as
one of his many uses of objects or values which also contain their opposite. What drives men
and women to celebrate life can also cause that life to end.