“How Do I Love Thee,” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, is an Italian sonnet that is filled with numerous vivid images throughout the octave and sestet. The images she uses to compare her love become much stronger in the sestet and she compares them to experiences in her life.
In the first quatrain of the octave, Browning says that she loves him as far as her soul can reach until the end of time. “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” (2-4). Even if you can’t feel or see her love, it is still there until everything is gone. Her soul fills every inch of the universe, as does her love.
She then goes on to say, in the second quatrain, that she loves him from sun up to sun down and not a minute goes by where she doesn’t think about him. “I love thee to the level of every day’s/ Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light” (5-6). Even when she is laying there at night, or just sitting around during the day, she is always thinking about him. She thinks about the love she has for him. It is always on her mind. Then she says, “I love thee freely, as men strive for right” (7). Her love for him is similar to people wanting to do the right thing. Her love for him is free, just like how people feel free when they do the right thing. Next, she says, “I love thee purely, as they turn from praise” (8). When people do the right thing, they don’t always want to be praised for it. Sometimes, they want to help someone they don’t know, and who doesn’t know them, and not be thanked for it. That makes their actions pure, just like her love is for him. She doesn’t care if he expresses his feelings for her, or even if he feels the same way. She isn’t looking for that, which makes her love pure.
Because this is an Italian sonnet, line nine is where the volta takes place. In this poem Browning switches from present tense in the octave to past tense in the sestet. “I love thee with the passion put to use/ In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith” (9-10). Browning is saying that she loves him with the same passion that she used to love God. Then she says, “I love thee with a love I seemed to lose/ With my lost saints” (11-12). She lost her way. For some reason, Browning lost her love for God and the other saints, however, she found that love when she met him. He is bringing her back to where she used to be and is helping her find that love for God that she once lost. Next she says, “I love thee with the breath,/ Smiles, tears, all of my life; and, if God choose,/ I shall but love thee better after death” (12-14). With all of the breaths she has taken, smiles she has given, and tears she has cried, she loves him. All of these things that she has endured has essentially built her love for him. She says, “if God choose,/ I shall but love thee better after death” (13-14). He is helping her find her way back to loving God. If God shall allow it, she will love him even after she dies. She is hoping that God will forgive her for losing her way and will allow for her to continue loving him. These two lines are also written in a future tense, which means that she plans on loving him forever, even if God allows her into heaven.
The change, or shift, between the octave and the sestet is not a change within the poem. The change takes place within the poet. She begins by making the poem about him, but changes it to where it is about her. It is a subtle change, but it does happen. This sonnet us unique because it begins in present tense, switches to past tense, and ends with future tense. The poem starts with her soul, moves to his part in helping her, to referencing back to her soul. The ending comes back around to the beginning. Browning doesn’t really count the ways she loves him. It’s more of her thanking him for helping her learn to love God again. She hopes that God forgives her so that she can continue loving this person after death.
The vivid images imply an unconditional love, but they also show that it is possible to find your way back to whatever it is you have lost. In Browning’s case, she lost her love for God and the person she fell in love with helps her find that love again. This sonnet isn’t really about how she loves this person, but why she loves him. He helped her find her love for God and she thanks him. Browning wants to spend all of eternity with this person that she loves, and she hopes that God allows that since she has ultimately found her way back to Him.
I just recently finished "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak. I had no idea what this novel was going to be about going into it; all I knew was that our 10th grade English class study it. Right off the bat I noticed that our narrator was not your average Joe. The narrator is death. When I realized this I said to myself, "Oh this is going to be good." The novel is all about the Holocaust and it is shown from a German point of view. Leisel Meminger's mother gives her away to a foster German family. On the trip to this new family, Leisel's brother dies. So right from the start death is there. I'm not going to give you a synopsis of it, because I think you should read it for yourself. Just know that a German family hides a Jew in their basement for a while, and death is around every corner. That last line of the novel really got me though..."I am haunted by humans."
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