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Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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A woman attempts to express the depth of her love for someone by recounting all the ways it manifests in her life — from the grandest, most spiritual feelings to the subtle everyday moments.

Poet
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Core theme
Faith
The PoemFull text

Sonnet 43

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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.

Public domain

Sourced from Project Gutenberg

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§01Quick summary

What this poem is about

A woman attempts to express the depth of her love for someone by recounting all the ways it manifests in her life — from the grandest, most spiritual feelings to the subtle everyday moments. She describes her love as free, pure, passionate, and deeply rooted in faith. She concludes by stating that even death won't diminish it — if anything, her love will only grow stronger.

§02Themes

Recurring themes

§03Line by line

Stanza by stanza, with notes

  1. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. / I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

    Editor's note

    Browning starts with a question that she quickly answers — a rhetorical technique that frames the entire poem like a catalog. The three dimensions (depth, breadth, height) imply that her love spans every direction, as limitless and immeasurable as the universe. "Feeling out of sight / For the ends of Being and ideal Grace" extends that love beyond the tangible realm into the spiritual — she's striving for something elusive, something that defies definition.

  2. I love thee to the level of everyday's / Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.

    Editor's note

    After the grand cosmic scale of the opening, Browning shifts the focus to the everyday. "Everyday's most quiet need" highlights those small, unremarkable moments — morning routines, simple tasks, the transition from day to night. "Sun and candlelight" spans all hours, suggesting this love is steady and unwavering, not just meant for dramatic occasions.

  3. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; / I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

    Editor's note

    These two lines focus on the *quality* of her love instead of its magnitude. Loving "freely" implies doing so unconditionally, much like how people seek justice or uphold moral principles for their own sake. Loving "purely" suggests acting without any expectation of reward or acknowledgment — similar to how someone might do the right thing when no one is around to see it. These comparisons lend her love an ethical and almost noble quality.

  4. I love thee with the passion put to use / In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

    Editor's note

    Here, Browning taps into her personal history. She channels the emotional energy she once devoted to suffering and sorrow into this love instead. "Childhood's faith" holds great significance—it refers to a belief that is complete and unquestioning, before doubt or disappointment starts to erode it. She's expressing that her love embodies that same genuine, uncomplicated trust.

  5. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose / With my lost saints,—I love thee with the breath,

    Editor's note

    "Lost saints" is one of the poem's most intimate images. Browning's brother Edward drowned in 1840, a tragedy that plunged her into deep grief and isolation for years. The love she believed she had buried with those she mourned has been rekindled and fully given to her beloved. The surge of "breath, / Smiles, tears, of all my life" combines everything — joy, sorrow, the essence of living — into one profound gift.

  6. I shall but love thee better after death.

    Editor's note

    The closing couplet makes the poem's most daring assertion. "If God choose" maintains a sense of humility — she's not offering a certainty, but sharing a hope grounded in faith. However, "I shall but love thee better" is quietly breathtaking: *better*, not merely *still*. In her view, death doesn't terminate love — it elevates it. This line shifts the poem from merely expressing present emotions to a promise that transcends life itself.

§04Tone & mood

How this poem feels

The tone is warm, earnest, and deeply sincere—there's no irony or distance. Browning expresses the quiet confidence of someone who has thoughtfully considered her feelings and is ready to communicate them clearly. The poem gradually progresses from expansive and abstract ideas to something more personal and intimate, making the emotional weight in the final couplet feel completely justified. It's devotional without being overly sentimental, passionate without crossing into melodrama.

§05Symbols & metaphors

Symbols & metaphors

Depth, breadth, and height
The three spatial dimensions represent the total, limitless expanse of her love — it stretches in every direction, much like light fills a room. It also resonates with the language found in religious texts that describe the vastness of God, subtly connecting her love to the sacred.
Sun and candlelight
These two light sources symbolize day and night, the public and the private, the bright and the intimate. Together, they indicate that her love is constant, functioning at all hours and in every circumstance — it never turns off.
Childhood's faith
Childhood faith embodies belief in its most genuine and unguarded state—before experiences bring in doubt. By referencing it, Browning suggests her love isn't careful or calculated; it's all-encompassing and unconditional, just like a child's complete trust.
Lost saints
The saints she feels she has "lost" are those she has mourned — especially her brother Edward, whose absence she feels deeply. This image implies that the love she believed was lost forever, buried along with the deceased, has been rediscovered and transformed. In a way, her beloved has restored her to life.
Breath, smiles, tears
This trio captures a whole human life in three words: the biological (breath), the joyful (smiles), and the sorrowful (tears). Putting them together shows that her love is intertwined with every aspect of her life, not just the joyful moments.
After death
Death here is not just an ending; it’s a threshold. Browning's Christian faith influences this perspective — she holds that the soul goes on and that love, as a spiritual force, will persist and even grow stronger after death. This transforms the poem's last word into a beginning instead of a conclusion.

§06Form & structure

Form & structure

Meter
iambic pentameter
Rhyme
ABBA ABBA CDCDCD

§07Historical context

Historical context

Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote Sonnet 43 as part of her collection *Sonnets from the Portuguese*, which she completed around 1845–1846 and published in 1850. These sonnets reflect her secret romance with the poet Robert Browning, whom she married in 1846 despite her father's controlling nature. Before meeting Robert, Barrett Browning was already a well-known poet, but she had spent many years as a semi-invalid, often confined to her family home. It was Robert's letters that helped pull her out of that isolation. The title *Sonnets from the Portuguese* was a clever disguise—Robert affectionately called her "my little Portuguese," so it made these deeply personal poems appear as if they were translations. Sonnet 43 serves as the emotional high point of the sequence, coming close to the end and offering the most heartfelt expression of love. The loss of her brother Edward in 1840 casts a shadow over several sonnets in the collection, including this one, giving the poem's joy a sense of being hard-earned.

§08FAQ

Questions readers ask

What is Sonnet 43 about?

It's a love poem where Elizabeth Barrett Browning expresses all the ways she loves her partner, Robert Browning. She starts with the most profound and spiritual aspects of love and gradually shifts to the simple moments of daily life, personal sorrow, and the faith of her childhood, ultimately declaring that her love will endure and flourish even beyond death.

Who is the poem addressed to?

It's addressed to Robert Browning, the poet she secretly admired and later married in 1846. She wrote the Sonnets from the Portuguese sequence while they were courting, but she didn't share them with him until after their wedding.

What does 'I love thee freely, as men strive for Right' mean?

She means her love is given freely and without selfish motives — just like someone seeks justice or adheres to moral principles simply because it’s the right thing to do, not for any reward. It’s love as a conscious choice based on values rather than a mere exchange.

What are 'lost saints' in the poem?

"Lost saints" refers to the loved ones she has lost to death. The most significant of these was her brother Edward, who drowned in 1840. She expresses that the love she believed she had buried with those she mourned has been revived and is now fully devoted to her beloved.

What does the ending 'I shall but love thee better after death' mean?

She's saying that death won't end her love; instead, it will make it stronger. This belief ties into her Christian faith and her conviction about the soul's survival. The word "but" is important here: it conveys the idea of "only" or "simply," which makes the line read as all I will do after death is love you even more.

What type of poem is Sonnet 43?

It's a Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet, consisting of 14 lines written in iambic pentameter. The first eight lines, or octave, follow an ABBAABBA rhyme scheme, while the last six lines, known as the sestet, rhyme CDCDCD. Browning sticks to this classic structure but subtly shifts it, allowing the emotional depth to flow beyond the strict boundaries of the form.

Why is it called 'Sonnet 43' and not given a proper title?

It's the 43rd poem in the Sonnets from the Portuguese collection, and similar to other sonnet sequences — like those by Shakespeare — the poems are numbered instead of having titles. The number simply indicates its place in the series.

Is this poem autobiographical?

Yes, absolutely. Barrett Browning based her work on her own experiences, including her battles with illness and isolation, the sorrow from her brother's death, her faith, and her genuine relationship with Robert Browning. The Sonnets from the Portuguese sequence stands out as one of the most autobiographical sonnet collections in English literature.

Citation

Cite this poem

MLA

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. "Sonnet 43." Storgy, https://storgy.com/poems/sonnet-43-elizabeth-barrett-browning/.

APA

Browning, E. B. (n.d.). Sonnet 43. Storgy. https://storgy.com/poems/sonnet-43-elizabeth-barrett-browning/

TeacherAP Lit Q1 scaffold — preview

Row A — Thesis

1 pt

In 'Sonnet 43,' Elizabeth Barrett Browning structures love not as a single overwhelming feeling but as a cumulative argument, one built from anaphora, spatial metaphor, and finally eschatological promise, to argue that authentic devotion is …

  • Row B — Evidence + Commentary4 pts
  • Row C — Sophistication1 pt
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