How Do I Love Thee?

Elizabeth Barrett Browning(1806–1861)

Sonnets from the Portuguese, 1850

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.I love thee to the depth and breadth and heightMy soul can reach, when feeling out of sightFor the ends of Being and Ideal Grace.I love thee to the level of everyday'sMost 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 thee with the passion put to useIn my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith;I love thee with a love I seemed to loseWith 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.

From the Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850), via the English Wikisource transcription. In that edition it is Sonnet 42 (Sonnet 43 in modern editions).

Public domainThis poem is in the public domain. You may read it, copy it, recite it and publish it without asking anyone.

About the poem

«How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.» So begins the most famous of the Sonnets from the Portuguese, which Elizabeth Barrett wrote in secret during her courtship with Robert Browning. The poem measures love as one measures space — «to the depth and breadth and height» the soul can reach when feeling out of sight.

And it goes on: she loves him with the passion of her old griefs and with her childhood's faith, with the breath, smiles and tears of all her life. The last line carries her past death itself: «and, if God choose, / I shall but love thee better after death».