Sonnet 43

Question 1

Title of poem and significance

Answer 1

Sonnet 43
Wrote 44 sonnets in total
Wrote a large number showing her love for him

Question 2

Establishes the topic of poem

Answer 2

‘How do I love thee’

Question 3

Suggests love is large

Answer 3

• ‘Let me count the ways’

- The fact the is counting suggests she must love him in multiple manners, thus love is large.

Question 4

Suggests her love for him is complete

Answer 4

• ‘I love thee to the depth and breadth and height/ My soul can reach’
• Covers all 3 dimensions, thus is complete
• Soul can reach suggests it spans beyond the physical world

Question 5

Structure throughout poem reflects the intensity of her love

Answer 5

Enjambement throughout poem, creates sense of breathlessness and restlessness in declaring her love for him

Question 6

Repetition suggesting her love is devotional

Answer 6

• ‘I love thee’

- May also be seen as desperation to make sure her message comes across to Robert

Question 7

Represents day and night

Answer 7

• ‘By sun and candlelight’
• suggest her love for him is all-encompassing
• light imagery may represent the hope that she has that Robert will help her escape her father’s reach

Question 8

Suggests that her love is not conditional and is moral

Answer 8

• ‘I love thee freely, as men strive for Right/ I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise’
• turning from praise means without wanting recognition

Question 9

Suggests her love for him relieves her from her griefs

Answer 9

‘I love thee with the passion put to use/ In my old griefs, and with my childhoods faith’

Question 10

Suggests she will love him no matter how rough their relationship may be

Answer 10

• ‘I love thee with the breath/Smiles, tears of all my life!’
• juxtaposition of ‘smile, tears’ suggests that her love for him will last forever through both extremes

Question 11

Suggests that Robert has replaced her wavering faith

Answer 11

‘I love thee with a love I seemed to lose/With my lost saints’

Question 12

Alludes to wedding vows

Answer 12

‘I shall but love thee better after death’
- conventional vows only refer to loving each other till death, Browning goes one step further to dedicate herself to her husband after death

Question 13

Structure in last stanza implies EBB is very excited or passionate about their love

Answer 13

Caesurae