The Concept Of Love In Elizabeth Browning's Sonnet 43

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In Elizabeth Browning’s poem ‘Sonnet 43’, Browning explores the concept of love through her sonnet in a first person narrative, revealing the intense love she feels for her beloved, a love which she does not posses in a materialistic manner, rather she takes it as a eternal feeling, which she values dearly, through listing the different ways she loves her beloved. The poem begins with the interrogative “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways “ (line 1). The poet’s central focus of her underlying love for her husband is she shown in the imperative “Let me count the ways”, revealing the speakers strong passion through the plural noun “ways”, which implies her loves extent. The poet tries to show that the love she holds for her beloved is in her everyday life, “ I love thee to the …show more content…

By using references of her grief or her losses, Browning creates a more realistic view of her love suggesting that her love is sincere as it comes from a grieved person, which differs to the positive and idealistic feelings portray in the first octave. The poet then talks about her fondness of her love, revealing that her she lives for her love “ I love thee with the breath, / smiles, tears, of all my life;” (line 12-13), the asyndetic listings of the verbs ‘breath’, ‘smiles’ and ‘tears’, implying that her love can stem from different emotions she feels such as happiness and sadness, suggesting to her beloved that her love comes from good and sad points of her life. Elizabeth Browning ends the poem with a religious idea of her love “ and, If God choose, / I shall but love thee better after death” (line 13-14). The use of superlative adjective ‘better’, suggest her endless love she has for her beloved, and only death could make it better as then it would be immortal and continue in the

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