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The Reader's Atlas · Compare · Love Letters

The Cross of SnowHow Do I Love Thee

Put Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "The Cross of Snow" alongside Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "How Do I Love Thee?" and you find two sonnets addressing the same theme—a marriage, a spouse, a love that transcends everyday existence—yet they emerge from entirely different experiences of loss.

  • Poets

    Henry Wadsworth Longfellow / Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  • Years

    —

  • Chapter

    Love Letters

§01 The thesis

The Cross of Snow & How Do I Love Thee

A reader's case for putting these two side by side — what each carries, and what they argue when they sit on the same page.

This difference in intent encapsulates the essence of their works. One poet is constructing something new; the other bears a burden he cannot set down. Both sonnets grapple with the notion that love endures beyond death, but Barrett Browning expresses it as a hope, while Longfellow conveys it as a wound. Together, they create a unified narrative: the vow spoken and the price of keeping that vow when only one person remains.

§02 The dialectic axes

The two poems on four axes

Each axis isolates one specific vector — speaker, form, image, closing move — and reads the two poems against each other on that single dimension.

01Speaker

Poem A · The Cross of Snow

Longfellow writes in solitude, in the shadows, during "the long, sleepless watches of the night." He sits alone with a portrait. The poem wasn’t ever sent out for publication—it feels like a note meant for no one, or perhaps just for himself.

Poem B · How Do I Love Thee

Barrett Browning addresses a beloved who is very much alive. The opening question — "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways" — suggests that there is someone present to hear the response. The poem feels personal yet also looks outward.
02Form

Poem A · The Cross of Snow

Longfellow employs a Petrarchan sonnet format, featuring an octave that introduces the setting (the portrait, the room, the deceased wife's saintly soul) and a sestet that presents the main image of the mountain cross. The volta is clear and well-structured.

Poem B · How Do I Love Thee

Barrett Browning also writes in the Petrarchan style, but her volta focuses on emotions instead of images. The octave presents love in lofty terms, while the sestet shifts to personal reflections — past sorrows, lost saints, breaths, smiles, and tears — before ultimately turning toward death.
03Central Image

Poem A · The Cross of Snow

The cross of snow on a mountain in the American West — defying the sun, everlasting, tucked away in deep ravines. It’s a natural mark that no season can wipe away. Longfellow bears its equivalent on his chest: grief that resembles devotion.

Poem B · How Do I Love Thee

Barrett Browning doesn't rely on a single defining image. Instead, her love acts as a measurement that continually expands—spatially, morally, emotionally, and spiritually. The poem's strength lies in its accumulation rather than a singular, fixed depiction.
04Closing Move

Poem A · The Cross of Snow

Longfellow concludes with a sense of stasis: "changeless since the day she died." The last word is "died." There's no comfort provided, no promise of reunion. The cross remains unchanged. This captures both the sorrow and the homage.

Poem B · How Do I Love Thee

Barrett Browning concludes with movement: "I shall but love thee better after death." This is a promise, not a certainty — prefaced with "if God choose" — yet the emotion conveyed is one of growth, not stagnation. Love keeps expanding even beyond the limits of life.

§03 Synthesis & departure

The shared ground and the divergence

Shared

Both poems are sonnets—fourteen lines, a shift in tone, and a conclusion that feels definitive. They both draw from real-life marriages: Barrett Browning crafted her sequence during her courtship and early marriage to Robert Browning, while Longfellow wrote his sonnet as he gazed at a portrait of Fanny on his bedroom wall, in the very room where she passed away. Each poem strives for a sense of elevation—Barrett Browning's love aspires to "the depth and breadth and height / My soul can reach," while Longfellow's sorrow climbs to a mountain in the far West. They both depict love as something that transcends ordinary time and seasons. Additionally, both employ religious language, even though they aren't strictly religious poems: Barrett Browning refers to "ideal Grace" and "childhood's faith," while Longfellow describes Fanny's soul as "more white" than any martyrdom could taint, with the mountain's cross being unmistakably a cross. Faith becomes the language both poets turn to when everyday words fail them.

Where they diverge

The sharpest difference lies in the use of tense. Barrett Browning's poem is firmly in the present: "I love thee," repeated eight times. This love feels active and ongoing, continuously revealing new dimensions. In contrast, Longfellow's poem shifts at the sestet into a singular, fixed image — the cross of snow that has remained "changeless since the day she died." While Barrett Browning gathers various elements (depth, breadth, height, everyday need, freedom, purity, passion, faith), Longfellow focuses on one unchanging thing that cannot be altered. Another notable difference is the audience. Barrett Browning speaks directly to someone who can hear her. The entire poem is directed at a "thee" who is alive and present. Longfellow, on the other hand, addresses a portrait on a wall — a face that "looks at me" but offers no response. His poem lacks a "thee" to engage with. The love expressed has nowhere to go, which is precisely his point. Barrett Browning's sonnet is an offering; Longfellow's is a confession without a confessor.

§04 A reader's order of operations

Which to read first

If you're familiar with "How Do I Love Thee?" take a look at "The Cross of Snow" to see what such love becomes after the beloved is lost. Longfellow conveys the same deep devotion, the same feeling that this love transcends everyday existence — but without the promise of a future. If Longfellow was your introduction, Barrett Browning's poem may strike you with its boldness and sense of direction. She lists the ways because she still has time to do so. This contrast in urgency holds the key lesson.

§05 Reader's questions

On The Cross of Snow vs How Do I Love Thee, frequently asked

Answer

They aren't typically paired together, but you’ll find them more frequently in thematic units focused on love poetry and marriage than in standard survey courses. This combination has become more popular as educators seek to present sonnets in conversation with each other instead of treating them in isolation.

§06 More from this chapter

The vow, the catalogue, the reproach

7 comparisons in this chapter

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