How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)

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.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
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 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 thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning

If I could choose a favorite sonnet from the 18th and 19th centuries, this one might be it. I love it. :) I recently read a novel based on (quite accurately) Elizabeth Barrett Browning's life, by one of the best historical novelists, Nancy Moser. She has also written on some of my other favorite historical women - including Jane Austen, Martha Washington, and Nannerl Mozart. But anyway - you should go and read her work. Espescially the one about Elizabeth. Even though its sad. Did you know her father forbade any of his children to marry? Elizabeth was nearly 40 years old when she finally ran away and married her one true love - Robert Browning - also a poet. Its a very romantic story and one taken straight from history. And that's what makes it so fascinating, as the autor Ms. Moser talks about. History often surprises me in that way - I have the ideas for a story, and the more I investigate, I find out what really happened was better than I ever could have made up. Gah I love it when that happens! Which reminds me of the story I am currently writing. Perhaps a snapshot of it will find its way on this blog in the near future. But I only said perhaps ;-)

~"I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears of all my life..."~