sonnet 43 - Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Question 1

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”

Answer 1

she is listing her truthful love for Robert Browning

• hyperphoria (direct address) shows a direct address to Robert Browning.
• Lambic pentameter used, stressed when it hits “love” to emphasis on her love for Robert which shows the heart and love she is putting into the poem.

Question 2

“I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach,”

Answer 2

she can’t measure her love because it is very intense.

• cluster of three to show her love being infinite and is able to transcend the idea of time and space.

Question 3

“my soul can reach”
“ideal Grace”
“they turn from Praise”

Answer 3

she is almost as if she is devoted to Robert

• semantic field of religious imagery shows her love can be compared to the devotion to God.

Question 4

“sun and candlelight.”
“I shall but love thee better after death.”

Answer 4

her love is eternal and will only grow.

• day and night imagery with “sun and candlelight” shows how she thinks, love and treasure him every day.
• transcending death and the use of future tense shows her love never ends and only grow stronger even after she died.

Question 5

“I love thee with the passion put to use in my old griefs, and with my childhood faith.”

Answer 5

even when there is a volta, she still loves him.

• the time “old” and “childhood” which shows a contrast of transcending time and this implies she loves him no matter where and the time.
• the verb “use” could implies that she will use her actions to prove her love and passion for him.
• the contrast between negative “griefs” and positive “faith” shows even if there is negative elements to her life, she will have faith in their love.

Question 6

“I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears of all my life!”

Answer 6

her love is intense.

• the use of cluster of three shows how her entire being is there to love him.
• repetition throughout the whole poem “i love thee” shows the huge amount of adoration she has.
• her love perhaps is too complex and can’t use words to pinpoint her love.

Question 7

CONTEXT

Answer 7

• have a respiratory disease.
• spends her live in lockdown
• eloped with Robert Browning to Italy in 1846.
• her father opposed to the relationship and never spoke to his daughter again.
• autobiography for her husband.
• poems are secret ways for them to communicate.
• english poet of the Victorian Era.
• published in 1850 in a collection called Sonnet from the Portugues.