An Explication of "How do I love Thee"
Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "How do I love Thee" from "Sonnets from the
Portuguese" portrays a relationship and love in an exceptional manner that is not
very common by today's standards. In the opening line, the speaker portrays the
joy and delight felt by this kind of love and relationship. This is presented to the
reader in the form of the rhetoric question, "How do I love thee?" (1). The tone
conveyed is one of happiness showing this love to be as such. In the portrayal of
love, the speaker conveys it to be boundless: "I love thee to the depth and breadth
and height/ My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight" (1-2). The language of this
abstract image portrays love to be uncontainable. This is emphasized by the phrase:
"when feeling out of sight" (3). This image of the love is portrayed as expanding
further than can actually be seen; it accentuates the boundless image of love. The
speaker's "soul" adds to the this image as a soul is not an object which can be
contained within the body, as it knows no bounds, so the portrayal of love can be
viewed as eternal. This image also depicts the magnitude of love as the words "depth
and breadth and height" show the vastness the speaker's love. Through out the
entire sonnet the poet presents the idea of pure, unconditional and eternal love.
The poem demonstrates the importance of companionship in a relationship, and it
shows how love in a relationship is adaptable to each person's "Most quiet need by
sun and candle-light" (6). The comparison between the boundless love previously
described and this image of day and night highlights the realistic level that the poem
has achieved. It conveys a practical image of love in a relationship.
The portrayal of love an...