Analysis Of How Do I Love Thee By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

One of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s most well know poems she ever wrote is called How do I love thee? Was published in 1850. A little over 10 years before she died and this is often referred to as her best poem she ever wrote. In this time in Elizabeth’s life she had just denounced her father and now is married to Robert Browning. In the first line of the poem is says “how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. “This sets the stage of the poem. The big question is how she loves the man in her life or in this case Robert Browning. The second half of the first line is telling the reader that she is going to count the ways she loves him. In line two it says “I love thee to the depth and breadth and height” Elizabeth describes her love using a

Since no one would want to be forced into love. There would not be any true love if you were forced. The complicated part comes in the second part of the lines because it is the thing she used to describe each of the freely and purely. When she say freely, as men strive for right, she implies that people try to do the right thing out of their own free will But most people strive to do good because they think they should, not because they want to. So maybe she doesn’t love him as much as she has lead on. She may feel as if she has to love him. In line eight, she says purely, as they turn from praise. What she is talking about is a modest type of love which implies that she doesn’t want praise for her poems on love or her love for Robert. She loves without wanting anything. In line nine and ten she says “I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith” what she means is she loves him as if a child would love their parent. The kind of love that is pure and