English 101

Sonnet 43
by Elizabeth Barret Browning

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.
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.

Write an analysis of the poem with a special emphasis on its historical background and Elizabeth Browning’s life story (a historical or biographical approach).
Write an analysis of the poem from the New Criticism perspective, closely examining the form and content of the text itself without any reference to the historical or biographical context or to your personal response to the poem.
Write about your own personal reaction (emotional response) to the poem. Try to explain how you approached the poem and how your opinion could shape or change its meaning. Explain the disadvantages of emphasizing background information, such as historical context when critiquing a poem. Be sure to include examples from your analyses.
List any advantages or disadvantages in using the New Critical approach when evaluating a poem, including examples from your analyses.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of emphasizing personal bias and emotion when critiquing a poem? Include examples of your analysis when possible.

ANSWER

Poem Analysis

The poem ‘How do I Love Thee’ is a declaration and proclamation of Elizabeth Barret’s unending love towards his lover. She says that her love for him is deeply rooted, and nothing can compare to the affection she feels. She also hopes that God shall enable her to continue to love him even after her death. The passion and profound emotion of the feeling of love forms the actual basis that Elizabeth felt towards her lover in real life. The poem’s background is derived from two lovers who went through many problems for them to be together. She and her lover, Robert Browning, also a renowned poet, were forced to wed secretly as Elizabeth’s father did not approve of their union. Upon hearing about the news of their marriage, he disinherited her. Upon moving to Italy, Elizabeth and Robert constantly wrote to each other, encouraging each other and proclaiming their eternal love. This poem was one of the letters that Elizabeth wrote to him, and the words describe the deep emotions she feels for him. The tone is both passionate and saddening that one might assume she wrote it with mixed emotions of love and the hardship she endured from her father for the sake of their love.

The new criticism perspective served to make readers focus on the structure and meaning of the text without being analyzed separately. It emphasizes the meaning of the text and how it is intimately connected without reference to the reader’s response, historical background, or the author’s intention. Using the new criticism perspective, the poem starts with the use of rhetoric questions ‘how do I love thee?’. There is also repetition of the phrase ‘ I love thee…’ that shows emphasis. This helps emphasize the emotion that the persona feels towards her partner. The poem also contains different forms of imagery. For instance, ‘ I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life!’ depicting visual imagery that derives a strong emotion of how strong the love is. Rhyme is also evident with the words ‘height and sight.’

My emotional response to the poem is developing a positive attitude towards love, and the poem is making me believe that one can find happiness and love the right person and be proud of their love. I approached the poem by first looking at the background information about the poet. After realizing that the poem resulted from a real-life proclamation of love, I looked at the choice of words and analyzed the kind of emotion it evoked from me. For instance, the phrase ‘ if God chooses, I shall but love thee better after death’ show the words of a persona entirely devoted to love and full filled by it. Gaining background information helped me understand the poem from a personal perspective about the poet and made the poem more believable. However, using background information to analyze the poem may affect my analysis by creating interference. This might hinder one from analyzing the poem from a different perspective and will be forced to understand the poem only from the poet’s perspective.

Using the new critical approach can be an advantage as it limits the reader to only the structure. This will help the reader be open to a different perspective. The disadvantage is that the reader will be limited to only the structure but not the emotion the poem might have sought to achieve.

Personal bias and emotion can help the reader to stay positive and carry the same burden that the persona has. For instance, the poem makes one believe in love and taken to a world of fantasy where everything is perfect, and that love is enough to sustain a person. On the other hand, it can be limiting and close additional emotional perspectives, forcing one to ignore them and only stick to what the persona believes and says.

References

Barret-Browning, E. (2009). Sonnet 43. Sonnets from the Portuguese- ‘How do I Love Thee?’