Sonnet 43

Sonnet 43 - How do I love thee? Let me count the ways by Elizabeth Barrett Browning


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.


As a 15 year old girl, obsessed with poetry, thrift stores, bell-bottoms, and the like. I purchased a framed copy of this poem complete with pressed flowers and fell in love with it. I hung it up on our wall recently (a throw back from my wannabe hippie days), and every time I see it...it makes me smile.