Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Elizabeth Barrett Browning from Sonnets from the Portuguese


XLIII

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 might 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.

10 comments:

  1. GULNOZA NURULLAEVA

    Hi dear classmates,here is the short reason why Barrett wrote this poem (I found it on the internet):

    'A man named Robert browning came to town, to have her be his mentor, as he loved her writing. well, she soon fell in love with him, and out of this love wrote this poem to him. when she gave it to him, she said it was a poem that she found in an archive of long lost spanish sonnets. however, he saw right through it and said he loved her back. as a result, the two ran away together and "lived happily ever after."'

    You can also check out the recitation of the poem by Kristin Hughes on:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3E8UQI8jh48

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  2. ELif Kılıç
    As my friend Gulnoza said, poet writes this poem for her future husband,Robert Browning. When we read the poem, we can easly notice her intensive feelings to him.

    "I love thee to the level of everyday's
    Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight."

    These two lines explains that she loves him with all her solu. As she loves him so much that she doesn't need anything except for his love.
    And it is too easy to recognize her intensive love from the the lines starting with ' I love... '. Although it is a very impressive, emotional poem, I don't think that in today's world there is such a woman who fells all pure feelings to a man without any profit. Therefore I admired her.

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  3. I thank all who have loved me in their hearts,
    With thanks and love from mine. Deep thanks to all
    Who paused a little near the prison-wall
    To hear my music in its louder parts
    Ere they went onward, each one to the mart's
    Or temple's occupation, beyond call.
    But thou, who, in my voice's sink and fall
    When the sob took it, thy divinest Art's
    Own instrument didst drop down at thy foot
    To hearken what I said between my tears, . . .
    Instruct me how to thank thee! Oh, to shoot
    My soul's full meaning into future years,
    That they should lend it utterance, and salute
    Love that endures, from Life that disappears!


    when I search something about Elizabeth, I come accross with this part and I love it very much. I want to share it with you

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  4. TülayÖrücü
    Poem is really graceful and the confession is honest.No matter what she does she will always love him be it breathing,cryin or smiling. She is religous because she says 'If God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.'Which means she has faith that God will choose for them to be together and she plans to love him better after death.
    I find this poem really romantic.

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  5. 'I love thee with a love I seemed to lose'
    While reading ,the only line that I underline:)I love it thats the cause...However,the poem supports the real love,commitment,fidelity with all his words and it may be like a song that lover always present to her beloved...Even so,it's nice to read and feel the atmosphere of the poem completely...

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  6. no word can describe her love for him. she loves him like everyday's need. I like the expression 'i love you as far as my soul can reach' really very much. she manages to convey her message directly. we can observe her unmeasurable love from her expressions.

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  7. "How do i love thee? Let me count the ways."

    She wants to say to her lover how she is feeling about him and she describes her love in every word that she can. "freely, purely with childhood's faith, smiles, tears..." She tells everything from her heart in a very romantic way and she says she will love him even after death.

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  8. My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
    For the ends of Being and ideal Grace

    these lines explain how his love is, and we can not desribe the greatness of love. when we try to fit it in sizes we already lose the value of it.

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  9. "How do I love thee?" (Sonnets from the Portuguese, Number 63)

    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 every day'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 with a 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 suggests that her love for her husband has restored her lost faith and soothed all the emotional wounds of her childhood. "In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. / I love thee with a love I seemed to lose" (lines 10 and 11). She loves him with her soul (line 3), she loves him freely (line 7) and she loves him purely (line 8). These religious ideas spring naturally from the faithful Christian that she was.

    In a less religious vein, she asks her husband to love her properly and enduringly in "If thou must love me" (Sonnets from the Portuguese, Number 14). She wants him to love her for the sake of love, and not for any transitory quality that she might lose or change. She elevates love to the highest value in life, and even to the highest value after death.

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  10. Hnaım oncel

    She loves her beloved so much that she doesn't know the answer how she should put this love in to a way which will realy show HER love to him. She loves him with pure innocent feeling like children dreams.
    She wants him to love her. Her love made her life happy and pure. people think that love gives pain in conrat to poet because she is vary happy with this love.

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