1. Love is very difficult to define and Brown- Thee = the poet’s husband- The exclamation makes the She begins in a
ing is trying to answer a perplexing ques- to-be, Robert Browning. The tone really enthusiastic and calm manner
tion here. Her love is for a man her fa- question is simply phrased passionate, as if she’s going and the lines
ther forbade her from marrying and she and she will prove her love to enjoy showing him the flow easily, with
had to hide her writing, saying it was a for him in the next thirteen ways she loves him; it seems little pause, talk-
translation from Portugese. Her love is lines she’s ready to burst with ing in the ab-
therefore of a woman fighting the odds. emotion and feelings. stract. The usual
‘domestic’ love
is written in iam-
I love thee is re- bic pentameter.
peated eight times
in the poem; it is a
confirmation of her
There’s an empha-
feelings towards
him. Repetition like
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways! - sis on this triplet
this in poetry is I love thee to the depth and breadth & height here. Not only is
called ‘anaphora’. there an internal
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight rhyme of depth/
breadth but this tri-
The word ‘soul’ For the ends of Being and Ideal Grace. ple syndetic listing
brings a spiritual cannot be any
element into the deeper, higher or
poem– this is going wider. Her love is
to be a spiritual three-dimensional
love, eternal. The and goes further in
use of the word all directions than
‘soul’ means that she can possible
Grace and Being are capitalized. Why? She It is in iambic pentameter, a very
her body and her even know. The
seems to be referring to God and to have his gift strict form of writing. Browning
spirit love him, that diction here is
of ‘grace’, salvation. To be loved by a perfect changes the form to suit her
her love is pure and slightly religious in
God for all eternity. Her soul, being and grace, though; HOW do I LOVE thee?
not just ‘physical’. tone. These are not
now make this a metaphysical poem about eter- Then the rhythm slips back into
nal love. ‘Out of sight’ shows that even she can- normal iambic pentameter as tangible bounda-
not plumb the depths of her love— it is unfathom- she calmly gives her reasons. ries, they can’t be
able how much she loves him. touched or seen.

2. How beautiful an image is that? It could be interpreted two ways. First, it Emphasising that whatever Right is capital-
means that she needs him just as much as air, food, warmth, kinship, shel- time of day it is, she will be ized—why? Be-
ter—things that she must have. She cannot survive without him, cannot there. I wonder how many cause she loves
live or function. Or does it mean more? Does it mean that she will provide people in love can be with him just as much as
everything that he could possibly want, she will meet all of his simple each other 24/7 and not tire men who strive for
needs all the time? There is something very pure about this simple domes- of each other? freedom. This
tic image. would have been a
very important is-
sue at the time. If
‘Freely’—she is not men strive for
looking for anything ‘Right’ they will be
in return, there are happy and we all
no restrictions on want to be happy.
her love. This love
is given out of her
I love thee to the level of everyday's
own free will and Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light -
not of coercion I love thee freely, as men strive for Right, -
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise;
‘Purely’ - the se-
cond adverb in as
many lines. This is 3 times ‘I love thee’
love in moral terms; in these 4 lines. ‘I
there is no hidden love thee’ ALWAYS
agenda, no other has punctuation be-
cause. Her love is fore it, whether cae-
genuine, she suras or end-stops;
doesn’t desire any they are to empha-
Interesting thought that men ‘turn from praise’. I always thought
praise for it, it is sise the words
people liked being praised, being told they were good at some-
love for love’s sake when we read
thing. This is an emotionally powerful phrase pertaining to certain
only. them.
religious beliefs and would have been more powerful then than
now. They reflect her strong religious upbringing.

3. She loves him with an intensity Despite the word ‘faith’ not rhyming Faith in childhood—there is ‘breath...life!’ - the
equal to that experienced during with breath or death (but being an expression of innocence breath shows that
her times of suffering. There is a connected thematically) the poem here, of believing in purity, she needs him as
strong religious element here loses very little of its impact; it that everything can be per- much as air; smiles
again— it reminds one that through doesn’t jar on the reader, does it? fect, there is no room for any shows that she
pain she is still alive. doubts that we feel as we knows there will be
grow older and question. good times, tears
show the opposite;
then there is all my
Interesting line. She I love thee with a passion put to use life—he means eve-
loves him with the inten- ry emotion she has
sity one feels during their In my old griefs,.. and with my childhood's faith: ever had, every-
innocence of youth, I love thee with a love I seemed to lose thing is wrapped up
which she lost, but she in him. The calm
feels it again for him. With my lost saints, - I love thee with the breath, approach she had
The poem is getting at the beginning is
more passionate and the
Smiles, tears, of all my life! - and, if God choose,
now becoming
rhythm is changing to I shall but love thee better after death. more emotional.
match this. Instead of She is promising
iambic pentameter (one him ALL of her life,
unstressed, one to love him to the
stressed syllable) we point where she
now read: dies where even
‘WITH my LOST then it won’t stop.
SAINTS—I LOVE THEE If God choose—so not only will she love him in perfect way in this life,
with the BREATH/ but will love him in a more pure way for all eternity. The problems of
SMILES, TEARS of ALL everyday living would not be there in ‘Heaven’ - the love that would en-
my LIFE!’ She is becom- dure throughout eternity would be a pure one, one which only required
them knowing ‘love’ and each other in ways they cannot on earth. This What do you feel as a
ing more intense in her reader when you’ve
declaration of love. Is it love is eternal, it will never end. The purity of their love is witnessed by
God—and if he chooses it to continue then it will last forever. Not one finished this poem? Do
too sentimental? you go ‘Awwwwww…?’
way of her loving him can be felt or touched in this poem. They are all
abstractions, some metaphysical, ways in which love cannot be shown
to be real but are felt.