Sonnet 43 edexcel 4-The-Poetry-Anthology

How do I love thee? (Sonnet 43)

Each GCSE poetry anthology contains 15 poems, and in your exam question you will be given one poem – printed in full – and asked to compare this printed poem to another. The exam is closed-book, which means you will not have access to the second poem. This does not mean you need to remember every line from memory, but you do need to understand and remember key aspects of the poem. Understanding four things will enable you to produce a top-grade response:

• The meaning of the poem

• The ideas and messages of the poet 

• How the poet conveys these ideas through their methods

• How these ideas compare and contrast with the ideas of other poets in the anthology

Below is a guide to Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem ‘How do I love thee? (Sonnet 43)’, from the Relationships anthology. It includes:

• Overview: a breakdown of the poem, including its possible meanings and interpretations

• Writer’s methods: an exploration of the poet’s techniques and methods

• Context: an exploration of the context of the poem, relevant to its themes

• What to compare it to: ideas about which poems to compare it to in the exam

Overview

In order to answer an essay question on any poem it is vital that you understand what it is about. This section includes:

• The poem in a nutshell

• A “translation” of the poem, section-by-section

• A commentary of each of these sections, outlining Barrett Browning’s intention and message

‘How do I love thee? (Sonnet 43)’ in a nutshell

‘How do I love thee? (Sonnet 43)’, written by the Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, can be considered a tribute to love. The poem is a traditional sonnet expressing an intense and passionate relationship. 

‘How do I love thee? (Sonnet 43)’ breakdown

Lines 1–4

“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.”

Translation

• The poem begins with a rhetorical question that is answered immediately

• The speaker begins a list of ways they love the listener:

  • They love the listener as deep and as wide and as high as their “soul can reach”

  • They add, for emphasis, that this continues in absence, out of “sight”, and will last forever (“the ends of being”)

Barrett Browning’s intention

• The poet begins a persuasive argument to prove the extent of their love to a listener

• An emphatic statement answers the question posed and the speaker begins an elevated address to their loved one

Lines 5–6

“I love thee to the level of every day’s

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.”

Translation

• The speaker says that their love permeates their everyday life and meets their most simple need

• Whether it is the day or night, they love the listener

Barrett Browning’s intention

• The poet contrasts the previously hyperbolic comments on boundless love with a shorter statement that describes their love as simple and, perhaps, vital to daily life

Lines 7–8

“I love thee freely, as men strive for right.

I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.”

Translation

• The speaker adds two shorter emphatic statements to the list

• They describe a love that is free and “right”, suggesting equality

• The speaker loves humbly and “purely” without praise or need for reward or attention

Barrett Browning’s intention

• Barrett Browning uses two similes, one after the other, to compare love to purity and freedom

• The rhetoric (argument) is assertive and sophisticated, equating love to goodness and justice

Line 9–12

“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” 

Translation

• The speaker describes their love as restorative as it turns negative feelings (“old griefs”) to good ones with the same intensity (“passion”) as they once felt pain

• The speaker begins to make religious references in the passionate account of their love:

  • The reference to “childhood’s faith” implies the speaker loves with the same innocence and trust they once had as a child

  • They imply that their love for “saints” (religion) is not as strong as this love 

Barrett Browning’s intention

• The poem’s spiritual nature is created with repeated references to a love that is pure and good

• Here, Barrett Browning uses religious imagery to heighten the intensity of the poem and thus express the strength of their love

Lines 13–14

“Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.”

Translation

• The poem draws to a close with a last list:

  • The speaker says they love with the “breath/Smiles, tears” of their life, implying they love with every part of their being

• The last line proposes that “if God” chooses for them to die, their love would not change:

  • In fact, it would improve it

Barrett Browning’s intention

• In a final, almost desperate, bid to prove their love, the speaker says that their love is entire

• Barrett Browning concludes the traditionally elevated sonnet with a final declaration of love: 

  • The love will continue after death

Form

Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem ‘How do I love thee? (Sonnet 43)’ is a traditional sonnet to convey ideas of romantic love. The poem is predominantly a direct address that offers a list of ways the listener is loved. The speaker is said to be the poet herself speaking to her husband, Robert Browning.

Structure

The poem’s regular and sophisticated structure contributes to the idea of constancy and harmony. However, it also creates a desperate and persuasive argument. 

Language

The poem elevates the idea of romantic relationships with imagery that alludes to spirituality and religion, as well as life and death. 

Writer’s methods

Although this section is organised into three separate sections – form, structure and language – it is always best to move from what the poet is presenting (the techniques they use; the overall form of the poem; what comes at the beginning, middle and end of a poem) to how and why they have made the choices they have. 

Focusing on the poet’s overarching ideas, rather than individual poetic techniques, will gain you far more marks. Crucially, in the below sections, all analysis is arranged by theme, and includes Barrett Browning’s intentions behind her choices in terms of:

• Form

• Structure

• Language

Context

Examiners repeatedly state that context should not be considered as additional factual information: in this case, it is not random biographical information about Elizabeth Barrett Browning or facts unrelated to the ideas in ‘How do I love thee? (Sonnet 43)’. The best way to understand context is as the ideas and perspectives explored by Barrett Browning that relate to romantic love and themes of desire. 

This section has therefore been divided into two relevant themes that Barrett Browning explores:

• Romantic love

• Idealised love and desire

Romantic love 

• Elizabeth Barrett Browning, born in 1806, is a well-known Victorian poet whose work focuses on romantic love

• Her poetry was admired by fellow poet, Robert Browning, and this may have led to their subsequent love affair:

  • Their relationship was considered inappropriate as Robert Browning was six years her junior

• Their affair was conducted via secret letters between the pair due to its scandalous nature:

  • Many of Barrett Browning’s poems hint at a distance between the speaker and a listener

  • The poem ‘How do I love thee? (Sonnet 43)’ is ambiguous in this way as it is a direct address to a loved one, “thee”

• Barrett Browning is said to have been influenced by philosopher and writer Mary Wollstonecraft and her 1792 feminist essay ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman’:

  • At the time, Victorian women’s lives were limited and lacked autonomy as they were regarded as the property of their husbands and fathers

• This may have led to her rebellion from conventional London society and her decision to marry the younger Robert Browning:

  • Ultimately, they eloped and moved to Italy 

• At the time, it was common for female writers to use pen names to avoid the criticism that came with female independence:

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning, instead, published much of her poetry anonymously

  • The poem, ‘How do I love thee? (Sonnet 43)’, appears in a volume called Sonnets from the Portuguese, which was published secretly

  • This may have influenced the poet’s choice to use Petrarchan sonnets, noted for their Italian origins 

• Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her husband are considered influential in altering the gender narrative in classic poetry:

  • Elizabeth Barrett Browning has been criticised for allusions to submissive females in intense and traditional relationships

  • Yet some suggest she offers alternative perspectives in classic poetry

  • By presenting a female perspective, and one that is passionate and intense, she shows females as active participants in romantic relationships

Idealised love and desire

• Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s life was troubled with sickness: 

  • This may influence the use of spiritual language and the focus on life and death in poems such as ‘How do I love thee? (Sonnet 43)’

  • Indeed, the speaker suggests it is God’s choice if they live or die

  • In the poem the speaker expresses a love that transcends life 

• The poem ‘How do I love thee? (Sonnet 43)’ implies immortality through a perfect and pure love that goes on infinitely:

  • This poem can be considered a conventional Romantic poem in that it explores intense emotions

  • Its elevated idealisation of a love that is the “breath,/Smiles, tears”, and that makes up “all” of the speaker’s life