Max’s Musings: Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Why do poets write about love? 

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, an English poet and wife of fellow poet Robert Browning, has been a pioneer for authors and poets. Browning is responsible for respected works like Sonnets from the Portuguese, Casa Guidi Windows, Aurora Leigh, as well as a plethora of other works. 

Her sonnet “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” is rightfully one of Browning’s most famous and appreciated poems. Originally published in 1850 in Sonnets from the Portuguese, the poem is a celebration of love while showcasing the eternal power behind it. 

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

I love thee to depth and breadth and height 

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight 

For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. 

I love thee to the level of everyday’s 

Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; 

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. 

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, 

Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose, 

I shall but love thee better after death. 

Browning’s portrayal of love is infinite and expansive. The speaker dissects their love for an unnamed individual. Although their relationship is never clearly defined, it can be inferred as romantic. 

The speaker expresses her love in dual extremes like depth and height, sun and candlelight, and smiles and tears in order to show how their love is always constant. There is no situation or barrier where their love can ever come undone. They even hope that their love progresses even after death as it did in life. The speaker reflecting on their own mortality as well as the eternity of their love shows how their love is not just tied to their time on Earth. 

Browning’s choice to begin her classic sonnet with a rhetorical question offers the opportunity for the reader to ponder on their love and the loved ones in their own lives. As a lover of poetry, I did not miss the chance. 

It is hard to believe one human could love another so deeply when I struggled to love and trust individuals myself. When first being introduced to the poem in high school, I found it to be a dramatized and exaggerated tangent. This was easy to say back when I had never been in love and never thought someone could love me like this, if at all. 

Selected Poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning / The Evergreen Echo

The poem contains religious undertones and references that I found comforting yet troublesome. As a queer person and a Christian, I have struggled with holding on to both identities. Raised as a Lutheran, I always felt the need to hide and conceal my own queerness. There came a point where my queerness grew louder than the rest of me. Although I haven’t lost my faith, I learned that it’s a journey. I had an epiphany that both identities can coexist peacefully in me.  

There is no one way to love someone. While Browning’s poem can be perceived as a love poem between two individuals in a heterosexual couple, the poem holds more merit than that. The words are relatable from all walks of life. Whether you are a spouse, a partner, a parent, a child, or a friend, relationships are centered around connection and love for one another. I see myself and my fiancé in this piece. Not only can you love one person in a multitude of ways, you can also love many people in the same way.

When I read the poem through the lens of an individual to themselves, the poem brings a whole new meaning. The poem reinforces how poetry can be a love letter to one’s self before it is ever used on someone else. When I write poetry, I often find that I address a past version of myself to reflect on past experiences and love every stage of my being. 

Love is not always easy to write about. Browning is one poet who not only does it well, but inspires me to do the same.