Love Poem #6 Sonnet 43 - How do I love thee? Let me count the ways by Elizabeth Browning

I noticed a trend in my favorite love poetry...they are all men. I know Bob Dylan always said that women can't be poets but I say let's give the ladies a chance to show they can!  I think frizzy Lizzy might have won my heart with this poem and I would imagine it was for Robert Browning. They were mad for each other. Both were prominent poets of this era and frizzy Lizzy had been writing since the age of 5 or 6. Her first known poem was "On the Cruelty of Forcement to Man". I think at that age I was eating glue and drawing stick figures on colored paper. How the times have changed...

As I mentioned in the Robert Browning post I know she had a complicated family life. This poem says to me that she might have felt trapped. She wanted so much to be with the man she loved but was unable to go for it. Obviously she feels for this guy but the last line implies that she will not be able to love him the way she wants to until after death. Lucky for her she didn't have to wait that long...

Sonnet 43 - How do I love thee? Let me count the ways - Elizabeth 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 candle-light.
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.

Coming soon to theatres near you...poem #7