Analysis Of How Do I Love Thee By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

A sonnet by definition is, a poem of fourteen lines using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, in English typically having ten syllables per line. A poem is a piece of writing that says a lot in a few words; this sonnet does exactly that, it utilizes a multitude of literary devices to tell a story of a writer examining life with an ending message to push forward and go. In “An Echo Sonnet”, the author, Robert Pack uses repetition, hypophora, antithesis and synecdoche to reveal the voice experiencing writer's block which leads to the discussion of life and death between the voice and the echo.

He uses poetic devices including alliteration and metaphor when he talks about her shine he is talking about the woman’s beauty. In the beginning he notices her beauty and then it forms into a relationship. Toward the end it saddens when he expresses aging as a dark process, but it lightens again as he says he accepts it as a beautiful process. This means that even though she has aged he still loves her and believes she is still beautiful. This poem starts with the author noticing the woman's beauty and the forming a relationship, getting married, and finally even through age stating her beauty. This poem is very comparable to “Love is More Thicker Than Forget” as both of their meanings can relate to love as a force that can last through anything even old age and

Next, the speaker compares his growing love for her to the expansion of great empires. In lines 11 and 12 the speaker says, 'and my vegetables love should grow, vaster than empires and more slow.' Once again the speaker is alluding to something not directly related to love. Yet this comparison has great meaning when you consider the size and rate of growth of empires and also the fact that love is something that builds and grows with time, as do great empires.

Beginning early in the poem and used heavily throughout, imagery and personification are utilized to exemplify the lovers' argument. The belief that love is never ending is created through never ending connotations, "I'll love you, dear, I'll love you Till China and Africa meet, and the river jumps over the mountain and the salmon sing in the street." The lover uses images of the impossible such as fish singing, the laws of physics breaking, and distant continents meeting. This strengthens the original belief that love is eternal and superior to time itself. These tasks are nearly impossible and the idea of love one day ending is equated with them.

In lines six through nine the speaker says,”She was staring at me with her eyes, her breasts still sturdy, her thigh warming mine.” This sentence shows how the speaker began discovering his love for the first time with her(Harper 6-9). The speaker signifies that the woman is healthy and young when he refers to her still having sturdy breasts. The author uses imagery to represent the connection a person feels when they share a warm sensation of touch. When the speaker realizes she is staring at him he begins to wonder how long she had been staring at him and if she loved him.

The love between the two seems that it will be eternal. Time seems to stand still in this poem, seizing a moment between two lovers and accentuating it with nature’s majesty.

Being apart of her marriage made her crave a early death and the thought of being free made her want to live again.

And everything I am bursts into bloom. I feel as though you must, you must be mine, Not as a possession but a goal, you’re a unimaginable beauty. The free devotion of another soul. As though I were about to enter heaven Or just within the hour condemned to die, My mind with one fierce thought keeps running over, With you, and only you, the reason why”. [ a whole bunch of different

He describes the love he feels towards her and her love towards him. He gets more excited and happy as the poem goes on. “She’ll run upstairs through the decaying porch burning with love and happiness." (453, Yevtushenko). Although things have changed and gotten old, she still burns with love at the idea of seeing him. He continues on, getting more heartfelt and emotional. He describes what happens when they finally embraced. “She’ll run dripping upstairs, she won’t knock, will take my head in her hands.” (453, Yevtushenko). His lover didn’t even bother covering herself from the rain when she ran in because she was too excited to see him after so long. He explains that only she understands him. He does not worry about how much he has changed over the years, he believes that even if they had changed, they would still love each other regardless. “Will understand my fears, observe my changes.” (453, Yevtushenko). He has absolute love and trust in her, and rests his entire entity with

“Love, thick and dark as Alaga syrup, eased up into that cracked window. I could smell it – taste it – sweet, musty, with an edge of wintergreen in its base – everywhere in that house. It stuck, along with my tongue, to the frosted window panes. It coated my chest, along with the salve, and when the flannel came undone in my sleep, the clear, sharp curves of air outlined its presence in my throat” (Morrison 12). This passage is poetic in that it uses long descriptive passages about love.

She says that she loves him to the depth and breadth and height, which indicated that her love is long lasting. The image “by sun and candlelight” that Barrett Browning creates, is that her love may be ordinary like the sun, but its continuous since the light keeps shining day and night, which is why she uses the candlelight to represent the light she has for him is still on at night. Another image that Barrett Browning conveys is “I love thee freely, as men strive for Right, I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise”. This line shows that her love for him is of her own free choice and she compares it to the nationalists that fight for their countries, indicating that their love is as strong as a person’s love is to their country. Barrett Browning also says, “I love thee with the passion, put to use/In my old greifs… and with my childhood’s faith” here, the poet redirected her emotions from her past concerns onto her love. She states that her she loves him with her childhood’s faith, which could mean that she loves him with unquestioning confidence, just like a naïve child might.

account thy love. Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act and

The poet begins with the question, "How do I love thee?"-and it is this which sets the mood of the sonnet, as she tries to quantify, and articulate the depth of her feelings towards her husband. She uses biblical references and religious similes throughout the verse, comparing and equating her love to be as unconditional and pure -as like unto God's. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Elizabeth Barrett Moulton-Barrett was born March 6, 1806 in Durham, England to Edward Barrett Moulton-Barrett and Mary Graham Clarke. She was the eldest of twelve. Her father made the family fortune from a sugar plantation. In 1809, the Barretts moved to an estate called Hope End in England. Elizabeth Barrett’s childhood was spent happily at the family’s home in England. She had no formal education, learning solely from her brother’s tutor and from her continuous reading. She managed over the years to learn Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. She learned rapidly and began writing at an early age.

In the second stanza, the poem compares his love to a plant that does not bloom. The flowers are hidden deep within the plant. The text is expressing that while most would not appreciate a flower that does not bloom, the love described here goes far beyond that of anyone else’s. Inner beauty is admired. The narrator is not ashamed of his love. Yet, he feels as though he cannot compare her to anything of this world. He is entirely consumed by the spirit within her.