Elizabeth Barrett Browning, How do I love thee? Let me count the ways

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

[1806–1861]

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways

Born in Durham, England, Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) studied with her brother’s tutor. Her first book of poetry was published when she was thirteen, and she soon became the most famous female poet up until that time in English history. A riding accident at the age of sixteen left her a semi-invalid in the home of her possessive father, who forbade any of his eleven children to marry. At age thirty-nine, Elizabeth eloped with Robert Browning; the couple lived in Florence, Italy, where Elizabeth died fifteen years later. Her best-known book of poems is Sonnets from the Portuguese, a sequence of forty-four sonnets recording the growth of her love for her husband.

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 candlelight.

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.