How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. (Sonnet 43)
In line 1, the speaker begins by posing a question that the
entire sonnet will go on to answer: "How do I love thee. This is probably
to introduce the poem and to get the reader thinking.
In Lines 2-4 ,The speaker uses a spatial metaphor to
describe the extent of her love, comparing her soul to real object in the
world.
In lines three and four, the poet uses assonance, repeating
long "e" vowel sounds in words like "reach,"
"feeling," "Being," and "ideal." This repeated
long vowel sound adds a brighter, livelier feeling to the poem. It also reminds
us of what the speaker calls the beloved – "thee."
In lines 5-6,there are some of the only lines in this poem
that actually use concrete imagery – "sun and candle-light" – and
even then, it's only images of different kinds of light, not necessarily
definite objects. Even more so than other poems, this is an extremely abstract,
vague lyric that seems to take place out of this world. This might suggests that
the love is something that cannot be see but feel strongly. The words “quiet
needs” also might imply that love is something that cannot be seen but can be feel and is important like how the
sun is for the living things. Perhaps trying to says they need love for
survival..
In lines 9-10, these are the first lines in which the
speaker mentions her past "griefs." To emphasize the difficult nature
of the grief the speaker has felt, these lines use a subtle chiasmus of sounds,
using an "f" and an "s" sound and then repeating them in
the reverse order: "griefs [...] childhood's faith." In both places,
it's actually difficult to read the lines clearly, forcing you to
over-enunciate and stress this line more than you naturally would. The poet
also states that “with my childhood faith” this could imply that the speaker
believes in love again because of her/his new love for her/him.
The theme of this sonnet is love. The poem revolves around
describing and listing ways of loving someone. Talking about the speaker’s love
for someone might be his/her ways of proving perhaps how much he/she loves the
other.
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.
The speaker describes her love using a spatial metaphor: her
love extends to the "depth" and "breadth" and
"height" that her soul can "reach." This gives an image of
a container filled with love.
When the speaker is trying to figure out her "feeling" how far her soul her
"Being" extends in the world, she realizes that her love for the
beloved extends just as far (that's all the "depth and breadth and
height" stuff in line 3).
I love thee to the
level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by
sun and candle-light.
The speaker explains, she loves her beloved "to the
level of everyday's / most quiet need." This is perhaps a way of saying
that her love for him is passionate yet ordinary like day to day but you cannot
live without it kind-of-love.
We get a sense of everyday domestic living here ,the reality
of wanting to be with someone all the time in a low-stakes kind of way. This is
a married and ordinary kind of love. But there’s lots of love between them that
it’s like a need.
The speaker completes the description of this everyday love
with two images of light: "by sun and candle-light." Basically, this
is just a way of saying "in the day and at night," this probably
implied that the speaker needs to be with each other day and night and that the
speaker here loves her beloved no matter what light she sees him in.This
everyday love is the second of the "ways" of loving that the speaker
lists.
I love thee freely, as
men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as
they turn from Praise.
“purely “ and “freely” might meant that the speaker’s love
for him is out of free will and is innocence .Perhaps the speaker is also
implying that she's not proclaiming her love in order to be applauded by her
readers. She's not seeking praise for writing a great poem about love; she
loves without wanting any reward or commendation. “freely" is the third
way and "purely" is the fourth way of loving that the speaker lists.
love thee with a love
I seemed to lose
With my lost saints –
The “lost saints” refers to the people you used to believe
in that you don't have faith in anymore. This could implied that the speaker
once love or look up to someone a lot but they broke her faith so now the
speaker is channelling the lost love to someone else.
I love thee with the
breath,
Smiles, tears, of all
my life! –
“smiles, tears, of all my life” this tells me that the
speaker loves him/her not only through good times but all parts of their life
even the bad ones.
and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee
better after death.
Lines 13 and 14 might meant that when the inevitable death
happens , the speaker would still find ways to continue loving him/him.
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