Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways" (532) is one of the most famous lines in poetry and it is absolutely one of my favorites by far. I adore it. There is so much compassion in that one line. And it is not just that one line that has so much compassion but every line in each of her poems. Most of her sonnets were written to express how much love she had for Robert Browning. I loved the fact that the two were so in love with each other that they eloped even though Elizabeth's father forbide the wedding. In the sonnet 43 after asking the question about how much she loves Robert she answers it as well. She writes:

"I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. I lvoe 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 with the breath, smiles, tears, of my life! -- and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death" (532).

I love this because it is expressing that before she met Robert her life was full of grief and pain but now she can even turn those into love for him. When she says that she loves with the breath, smiles, and tears of her life I find it to mean that even through the good and bad she will have the ULTIMATE love for him. She truly found her prince charming. I am sure that many girls identify with Elizabeth's poems more because they want to find that love and if they have found such a love they want to express is just as she has expressed it. Another thing I am positive of is that after reading her poetry I could not wait to fall in love and experience something so amazing and great as what she describes in her sonnets.