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Do I Love Thee Poem Analysis

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How Do I Love Thee – Elizabeth Barrett Browning interprets the meaning, tone, and overall effect of a poem How Do I Love Thee by Elizabeth Barret Browning is an iconic and powerful love poem. The work is part of Sonnets from the Portuguese, a collection of poems that Elizabeth Browning wrote for her husband, poet Robert Browning. It is a passionate declaration of love from one who is in love, which has resonates with readers through history because of the rawness and familiarity of its feelings. Throughout the text, the speaker uses a diverse array of literary techniques to demonstrate the multidimensional nature of their love towards a lover. First, passionate love is conveyed in the spatial metaphor of loving with “the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach.” Here, love is a substance that fills up and infatuates the speaker, creating a powerful drive that forces her to express it. This spatial love is overwhelming and grand, which establishes the passionate and fervent tone of the poem. Then, the speaker moves on to describe a more tender and companionate …show more content…

“Born in 1806, Elizabeth Browning spent most of her adult life as an invalid, ruled over by a tyrannical father who forbade any of his sons and daughters to marry. She married Robert Browning in 1846 after a courtship that had to be kept secret.” Thus, the passion in the poem represents the exact kind that motivated Elizabeth Browning to abandon her family tradition to marry Robert Browning. Furthermore, the transformative power of the love described corresponds to the way Elizabeth Browning often credited her husband for saving her life. As the power couple of English poetry, the Brownings are remarkable for their ability to love with words. Among their collection of hundreds of letters and love poem, How Do I Love Thee happens to be the most iconic and descriptive portrayal of their

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