Elizabeth+Barrett+Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

//36. Sonnet 43// *Elizabeth Barrett Browning expresses her intense love for her husband-to-be Robert Browning. *Browning starts off the poem by asking herself 'how do I love thee?' and proposes to 'count the ways.' *She first compares her love to religious and spiritual aspirations where she says she loves him 'to the depth and breadth and height [her] soul can reach.' *Browning then compares her love to everyday scenes, where she will meet his 'most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.' She loves him 'freely and purely.' *Repetition of 'I love thee' is used to reinforce the strength and intensity of her love. *The poem ends with her exclaiming 'I shall but love thee better after death.' This remark expresses her belief that the love between them are so strong that it will not be bound by their mortal life where she will continue to love him, maybe even more when they entire the next realm.