Elizabeth Barrett Browning: A Discussion on “How Do I Love Thee?”
“As I love you?” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning was written in 1845 while the English poet Robert Browning was courting her. The poem is also titled Sonnet XLIII of portuguese sonnets.
early experiences
Elizabeth Barrett was born in Durham England in 1806, the first child of wealthy parents who owned sugar plantations in Jamaica. She was educated at home and read voraciously in history, philosophy, and literature. Young Elizabeth learned Hebrew to read original biblical texts and Greek to read original Greek drama and philosophy. She began writing poems when she was 12 years old, although she did not publish her first collection for another twenty years.
Elizabeth Barrett developed a serious respiratory illness at age 15, and a horse riding accident soon after left her with a serious spinal injury. These two health problems accompanied her all her life.
In 1828 his mother died and four years later the family business failed and his father sold the Durham estate and moved the family to a seaside town. He was harsh, protective and even tyrannical and forbade any of his children to marry. In 1833 Elizabeth published her first work, a translation of Prometheus bound of the Greek playwright Aeschylus.
A few years later the family moved to London. Her father began sending Elizabeth’s younger brothers and sisters to Jamaica to help with the family business. Elizabeth was distraught because she was an outspoken opponent of slavery in Jamaica and on the family plantations and because she did not want her brothers to be expelled from her.
early writing
In 1838, Elizabeth Barrett wrote and published The seraphim and other poems. The collection took the form of a classical Greek tragedy and expressed his deep Christian sentiments.
Shortly thereafter, Elizabeth’s failing health prompted her to move to Italy, accompanied by her beloved brother Edward, whom she referred to as “Bro”. Unfortunately, she drowned a year later in a boating accident and Elizabeth returned to London gravely ill, emotionally broken and desperately distraught. She became a recluse for the next five years, confining herself to her bedroom.
However, he continued to write poetry, publishing a collection in 1844 titled simply, poems. It was also published in the United States with an introduction by Edgar Allan Poe. In one of the poems he praised one of Robert Browning’s works, which caught his attention. He answered her, expressing her admiration for poems.
Robert Browning
Over the next twenty months, Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning exchanged 574 letters. Admiration, respect and mutual love grew and blossomed. In 1845, Robert Browning sent Elizabeth a telegram that read: “I love your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett. As I say, I love these books with all my heart, and I love you too.” A few months later, the two met and fell in love.
Inspired by her love for Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett wrote the 44 love poems that were collected in portuguese sonnets and they were finally published in 1850. Her growing love for Robert and her ability to express her emotions in sonnets and love poems enabled Elizabeth to escape her father’s oppression and her recluse’s depression.
His father was strongly opposed to the relationship, so he kept his love affair a secret for as long as possible. The couple eloped in 1846 and her father never forgave her or spoke to her thereafter.
move to Italy
Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her husband, Robert, went to Pisa, Italy, and soon settled in Florence, where she spent the rest of her life, with occasional visits to London. Soon, Elizabeth’s health improved enough that she was able to give birth to the couple’s only child, Robert.
In 1850 he published Portuguese sonnets. Some have speculated that the title was chosen to hide the personal nature of the sonnets and to imply that the collection was a translation of earlier works. However, Robert’s pet name for Elizabeth was “my little Portuguese”, a reflection of Elizabeth’s darker Mediterranean complexion, possibly inherited from the family’s Jamaican ties.
While living in Florence, Elizabeth Barrett Browning published 3 more considerable works. She tackled Italian political issues and some other unpopular topics, such as slavery, child labor, male domination, and women’s right to intellectual freedom. Although her popularity declined as a result of these elections, she was read, heard and recognized throughout Europe. She died in Florence in 1861.
The poem, “How do I love you?”
Sonnet XLIII, “How do I love you?” is probably Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s most popular love poem. She is sincere, romantic, affectionate, elegant and simple. It’s also quite memorable.
The love poem begins with the question: “How do I love you?” and she proceeds to count the roads. Her Christian spirituality testifies that she loves Robert “to the depth, breadth and height that my soul can reach.” She then professes seven more ways that she loves Robert. Her “passion put to use in my old grievances” refers to the depth of her earlier despair. The love that “I seemed to lose with my lost saints” refers to the lost loves of his mother and her brother.
The love poem ends with the declaration that time and death will not lessen her love for Robert because “if God so decides, I will love you better after death”.
As I love you
As I love you? Let me count the shapes.
I love you deep and wide and high
My soul can reach, when it feels out of sight
For the purposes of Being and ideal Grace.
I love you at the level of every day
Quieter need, in the sun and by candlelight.
I love you freely, as men fight for the Good;
I love them purely as they walk away from Praise.
I love you with the passion put to use
In my old grievances, and with the faith of my childhood.
I love you with a love that seemed to lose
With my lost saints, I love you with my breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! And, God willing,
I will only love you better after death.