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 candle-light.
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 better after death.
Originally published in Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850) by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Public domain.
Analysis
Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Sonnet 43,” beginning with the iconic line “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways,” is the most famous of her forty-four “Sonnets from the Portuguese” (1850). The poem stands as a radiant declaration of love — both deeply personal and spiritually transcendent.
In its fusion of passion, devotion, and moral sincerity, it exemplifies the Romantic ideal of love as an expression of both the human and the divine. Beneath its serene beauty lies an intimate dialogue between emotion and faith, individuality and eternity.
Context and Background
Barrett Browning wrote the “Sonnets from the Portuguese” during her courtship with fellow poet Robert Browning. Frail from illness and living under the restrictive authority of her father, Elizabeth’s love for Robert represented not only romantic awakening but liberation — emotional, creative, and spiritual.
She disguised the sequence’s autobiographical nature by presenting it as a translation from Portuguese, allowing her to veil private emotion under the guise of literary artifice. “Sonnet 43” was written near the end of the sequence, serving as both culmination and benediction — the final, unreserved confession of love’s redemptive power.
Form and Structure
The poem follows the structure of a Petrarchan sonnet — fourteen lines divided into an octave (eight lines) and sestet (six lines) written in iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme (ABBA ABBA CDC DCD) provides musical harmony, while the enjambment and fluid syntax reflect the overflowing nature of emotion.
The famous opening line sets the tone of logical exploration, yet the enumeration of “ways” of loving quickly transcends rational order. The poem’s form becomes a vessel for intensity, balancing reason’s clarity with passion’s depth.
Theme of Love’s Measureless Depth
“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways” introduces a paradox: the speaker attempts to quantify what is infinite. Each “way” of loving expands the meaning of love beyond the physical into the moral, intellectual, and spiritual.
She loves “to the depth and breadth and height / My soul can reach,” a trinity of dimensions that evokes both geometry and theology. Love here is boundless — spatially, ethically, and metaphysically. Barrett Browning transforms personal affection into a vision of love as an eternal, animating force that transcends mortal limits.
Spiritual and Philosophical Dimensions
Throughout the sonnet, Barrett Browning fuses human love with divine aspiration. Her love is not only emotional but moral — she loves “to the level of every day’s / Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.” This line grounds the sublime in the domestic, sanctifying daily devotion as an act of faith. Later, she invokes love “freely, as men strive for right,” suggesting moral choice; “purely, as they turn from praise,” indicating humility.
In these comparisons, love becomes a spiritual discipline — a conscious, selfless alignment of the soul with goodness and truth. The sonnet thus bridges the sacred and the human, depicting love as both grace and will.
Faith, Mortality, and Eternity
The final lines lift the poem from mortal love to the promise of immortality: “and, if God choose, / I shall but love thee better after death.” This conclusion unites the Christian belief in eternal life with Romantic faith in emotional transcendence. Love becomes a force that not only survives death but deepens through it — a continuation of the soul’s journey toward divine union.
For Barrett Browning, love is inseparable from spiritual destiny; it is both a personal commitment and a form of salvation. The conditional “if God choose” underscores her humility before divine will, suggesting that love’s immortality rests not in human control but in divine grace.
Language and Tone
The diction of the sonnet is simple yet elevated, expressing profound emotion without ornament. The repetition of “I love thee” throughout the poem creates a rhythm of affirmation, a mantra that both builds intensity and conveys serenity.
The tone is meditative rather than ecstatic — a calm outpouring of devotion shaped by reflection. Each line deepens rather than amplifies emotion, showing that true passion, for Barrett Browning, lies in constancy, not in spectacle.
Contrast with Romantic Convention
While “Sonnet 43” draws on the Petrarchan tradition of idealized love, it departs from its courtly origins. Instead of portraying love as unattainable or unfulfilled, Barrett Browning writes from within a mutual, realized relationship.
Her voice is not one of longing but of gratitude — love fulfilled through moral and spiritual harmony. In this way, she redefines the sonnet form as a medium not of distance but of union, not of desire but of faith.
Gender and Voice
The poem also carries quiet feminist resonance. In the Victorian era, women were seldom granted authority to articulate passion so freely. Barrett Browning’s voice asserts agency — she names, defines, and interprets love on her own terms.
Her sonnet sequence, while inspired by a real relationship, transcends biography to claim intellectual and spiritual equality within love. In doing so, she joins and reconfigures the Romantic lineage, positioning the female voice as both poet and prophet of love’s divine potential.
Legacy and Reception
“Sonnet 43” quickly became one of the most beloved love poems in English literature. Its sincerity and clarity made it accessible to generations of readers, while its spiritual ambition continues to invite deep reflection.
Often quoted at weddings and memorials alike, the poem’s universality lies in its seamless blending of the human and the eternal. Barrett Browning’s declaration of love remains one of literature’s most intimate testaments to the redemptive power of the heart.
Conclusion
“Sonnet 43” stands as a testament to the transformative power of love — not as fleeting emotion but as moral and spiritual revelation. Barrett Browning’s speaker counts love’s “ways” only to show that love itself defies measure: it inhabits daily life, moral virtue, and the eternal soul.
The poem endures because it speaks not only of one woman’s devotion but of love as a universal act of faith — a force that unites human hearts with the divine.