Flashcards for Sonnet 43 — How do I love thee?

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (the Speaker)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning is the speaker and sole voice of "Sonnet 43," which is one of the most celebrated love poems in English literature, taken from her Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850).

character

God

In Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnet 43 ("How do I love thee?"), God isn't portrayed as a character who speaks or acts; instead, God serves as the ultimate spiritual benchmark against which the speaker evaluates the depth and authenticity of her love.

character

The Beloved (Robert Browning)

The Beloved—generally recognized as Robert Browning—is the silent yet ever-present focus of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnet 43 ("How Do I Love Thee?").

character

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”

This famous opening line is delivered by the poetic voice — widely recognized as Elizabeth Barrett Browning herself — in Sonnet 43 from her collection Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850), directed to her husband, the poet Robert Browning.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (poetic speaker) · Sonnet 43

“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.”

These opening lines from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnet 43, part of her collection Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850), are a direct address to her beloved Robert Browning.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (the poetic speaker) · Sonnet 43

“I love thee to the level of every day's / Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.”

These lines are from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnet 43 ("How Do I Love Thee?"), which is part of her well-known sequence Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850).

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (lyric speaker) · Sonnet 43 — Sonnets from the Portuguese

“I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.”

This line is from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's famous Sonnet 43 ("How Do I Love Thee?

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (the poetic speaker) · Sonnet 43

“I love thee freely, as men strive for Right.”

This line is from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnet 43 ("How Do I Love Thee?"), which appeared in Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850), a collection of 44 love sonnets written for her husband, Robert Browning.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (poetic persona) · Sonnet 43

“I love thee with a love I seemed to lose / With my lost saints.”

This line is from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's famous "Sonnet 43," which begins with the well-known line, "How do I love thee?

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (lyric speaker) · Sonnet 43 — Sonnets from the Portuguese

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

These lines come from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnet 43 ("How Do I Love Thee?"), widely regarded as the standout poem in her collection Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850).

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (lyric speaker) · Sonnet 43

“I love thee with the breath, / Smiles, tears, of all my life!”

This line is from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Sonnet 43," often recognized by its opening words, "How Do I Love Thee?"

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (lyric speaker) · Sonnet 43 — Sonnets from the Portuguese

“and, if God choose, / I shall but love thee better after death.”

This closing couplet is from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese, specifically Sonnet 43 (1850), which is one of the most beloved love poems in the English language.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (the poetic speaker) · Sonnet 43

Breath

In Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnet 43 ("How Do I Love Thee?"), breath symbolizes the essential, involuntary force of life and highlights love's vital role.

Light and Candle Flame

In Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnet 43 ("How Do I Love Thee?"), light and the candle flame represent the soul's quiet and deeply personal devotion.

Sun and Candlelight

In Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnet 43 ("How Do I Love Thee?"), the sun and candlelight symbolize the two sides of the speaker's love — its grand, all-encompassing nature and its quiet, intimate warmth.

The Soul

In Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnet 43 ("How Do I Love Thee?"), the soul represents the deepest and most enduring part of the speaker’s identity — the core of emotion that goes beyond the physical and the temporal.

Sonnet

Sonnet 43 is a Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet consisting of fourteen lines split into an octave and a sestet, written in loose iambic pentameter.

Anaphora

The poem's most prominent structural element is the recurring phrase 'I love thee,' which appears eight times within fourteen lines.

Apostrophe

The entire poem is directed toward an unnamed 'thee'—presumably Robert Browning—creating a continuous apostrophe.

Rhetorical Question

The poem begins with "How do I love thee?

Imagery

Browning grounds abstract feelings in spatial and sensory images.

Extended Metaphor

The opening lines create an extended metaphor that measures love as if it occupies three-dimensional space: 'the depth and breadth and height / My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight / For the ends of Being.'

Meter

The poem uses a loose iambic pentameter, which is the classic meter for English sonnets.

Parallelism

Beyond anaphora, the poem develops through syntactic parallelism: each 'I love thee' clause is followed by a prepositional or adverbial phrase that adds a mode or dimension of love.

Allusion

The line 'I love thee freely, as men strive for Right' references moral philosophy and political idealism, reflecting the principled efforts linked to abolitionism and social reform—issues that mattered greatly to Browning.

Volta

The Petrarchan volta occurs at line 9: 'I love thee freely, as men strive for Right.'

Oxymoron

The closing couplet — 'and, if God choose, / I shall but love thee better after death' — presents a subtle oxymoron: the idea of love growing stronger after death.

End-Stopped Line

Many lines in the poem are end-stopped, which lends each declaration a feeling of completeness and significance: 'I love thee to the level of every day's / Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.'

thee

An old-fashioned word meaning 'you,' used in poetry and religious language of earlier centuries to address one person directly and intimately.

Chapter 1

count the ways

To list or name each individual manner or form of something; here, the speaker means she will go through every distinct kind of love she feels.

phrase · Chapter 1

depth

The measurement of how far something goes downward or inward; used here as a spatial image for how profoundly and intensely the speaker's love reaches into her soul.

noun · Chapter 1

breadth

The measurement of how wide something extends from side to side; used here alongside depth and height to suggest love that stretches in every possible direction.

noun · Chapter 1

feeling out of sight

Reaching or searching beyond what the eyes or ordinary senses can perceive; the speaker describes her soul stretching toward invisible, spiritual limits.

phrase · Chapter 1

Being

Existence itself in its deepest, most fundamental sense — not just physical life but the full reality of what it means to exist, used here in a spiritual or philosophical way.

noun · Chapter 1

ideal Grace

A perfect, divine goodness or beauty beyond human reach; 'Grace' here carries a religious sense of God's blessing or moral perfection, and 'ideal' means it exists as a flawless concept rather than anything earthly.

phrase · Chapter 1

freely

Without conditions, demands, or selfish motives; the speaker means her love is given as a pure gift with nothing expected in return.

adverb · Chapter 1

purely

In a way that is completely clean of selfish or impure intentions; the speaker emphasizes that her love is morally untainted and wholehearted.

adverb · Chapter 1

Praise

The act of expressing admiration or worship, especially toward God; used here to describe the devoted, almost religious quality of the speaker's love.

noun · Chapter 1

passion

In this poem, an intense suffering or grief endured in the past, echoing the religious sense of Christ's suffering; the speaker says she loves with the same deep feeling she once put into sorrow.

noun · Chapter 1

smiles

Moments of joy and happiness in ordinary daily life; the speaker includes these alongside breath and tears to show her love is woven into every small, everyday experience.

noun · Chapter 1

after death

In whatever existence follows the end of earthly life; the speaker promises that her love will not end when she dies but will continue and even grow stronger beyond death.

phrase · Chapter 1

shall

An older form used to express a firm promise or certainty about the future, stronger than simply saying 'will'; here it underlines the speaker's absolute conviction.

verb · Chapter 1

but

Used here in an archaic sense meaning 'only' or 'simply'; the line means 'I will only love you better after death,' stressing that death changes nothing except to deepen the love.

adverb · Chapter 1