Love

4 Pages 1099 Words

The poem Sonnet 43, which is also known as “How do I love thee? Let me count thy ways.” was written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. This poem including some others was meant for her husband, Robert Browning to profess her love for him and because he was depressed because of the loss of his mother as stated in the online commentary from BBC. BBC also enlightens readers that “They (the poems) were published under the title Sonnets from the Portuguese…But it was also a private joke between Elizabeth and Robert.” The private joke was a poem that Browning had previously written that involved a woman deeply in love with a Portuguese poet, which again also confirms my theme of love with the help of BBC. If one reads this poem, he or she can identify the theme of love just from the words that are spoken, especially since the word love is spoken ten times. The way she expresses herself through this poem is amazing with the similes. The sincerity of this poem also proves the theme of love particularly when she writes the last line of the poem, “I shall but love thee better after death.” (Browning 1119). She gave up a relationship with her father to be with Robert because after her mother died, her father forbid any of his children to marry. Readers can also tell she loved her father because of the statement that was said in line eleven, which was, “I love thee with a love I seemed to lose” (1119). There is no doubt that love is the theme of this sonnet.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning had a hard life; her mother died when she was young, a blood vessel popped in her lung, she witnessed the death of her favorite brother, and she also became an invalid as stated in Shaw’s essay and BBC explanation. (Shaw page 3) Even though there were a lot of bad things in her life, it made her strive to do more. When she became an invalid, she did not lay there and allow her life to fade away; this is where she gained most of her know...