1.Critical Analysis of the poem How do I love thee by Elizabeth Barrette Browning.
Mark=10.
Answers
Analysis of How Do I Love Thee?
This Petrarchan sonnet has fourteen lines, the first eight being the octet and the final six the sestet. At the end of the octet comes what is known as the turn, more or less a subtle change in the relationship between the two parts.
In this sonnet the octet is basically a list set in the present that reflects a very deep love; the sestet looks back in time and then forward to a transcendent love, which helps put the whole work into perspective.
The rhyme scheme is traditional - abbaabbacdcdcd - and the end rhymes are mostly full except for: ways/Grace and use/loose/choose. The full rhymes bring closure and help bind the lines together.
Iambic pentameter is dominant, that is, there are ten beats and five feet/stresses/beats to most lines, for example :
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
Line By Line Analysis
Lines 1-4
This sonnet helped kick-start many more on the theme of modern (Victorian) love, from a woman's perspective. Note the emphasis is on the repetition and reinforcement of the speaker's love for someone; there is no mention of a specific name or gender, giving the sonnet a universal appeal.
The first line is unusual because it is a question asked in an almost conversational manner - the poet has challenged herself to compile reasons for her love, to define her intense feelings, the ways in which her love can be expressed.
There then follows a repetitive variation on a theme of love. To me this conjures up an image of a woman counting on her fingers, then compiling a list, which would be a very modern, 21st century thing for a female to do. This poem comes from another era however, a time when most women were expected to stay at home looking after all things domestic, not writing poems about love.
The second,third and fourth lines suggest that her love is all encompassing, stretching to the limits, even when she feels that her existence - Being - and God's divine help - Grace - might end, it's the love she has for her husband Robert that will sustain.
Note the contrast between the attempt to measure her love with rational language - depth, breadth, height - and the use of the words Soul, Being and Grace, which imply something intangible and spiritual.
Her love goes beyond natural life and man-made theology. These are weighty concepts - the reader is made aware that this is no ordinary love early on in the sonnet. The clause, lines 2-4, contains enjambment, a continuation of theme from one line to the next.
Is she suggesting that the simple notion of love for a person can soon flow into something quite profound, yet out of reach of everyday language and speech?
Lines 5-8
The speaker, the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning continues with her passionate need to differentiate the many ways her love for her husband manifests. In line five she clearly tells the reader that, be it day or night, her love fills those quiet moments, those daily silences that occur between two people living together.
Her love is unconditional and therefore free; it is a force for good, consciously given because it feels like the right thing to do. She doesn't want any thanks for this freely given love; it is a humble kind of love, untainted by the ego.
Lines 9-14
The sestet starts at line nine. The speaker now looks to the past and compares her new found passions with those of the old griefs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning had plenty of negativity in her adult life - she was mostly ill and lived like a recluse, seeing only old family friends and family.
Her father in particular oppressed her and wouldn't allow her to marry. There were no romantic relationships in her life by all accounts. She must have been driven to the point of willing herself dead. Little wonder that when Robert Browning came along she was given a new lease of life. In contrast her childhood had been a happy one and it's this she refers to in the second half of line ten. A child's faith is pure and innocent and sees fresh opportunity in everything.
Turning to religious feelings in line eleven, the speaker refers to a lost love she once had for the saints - perhaps those of the christian church, of conventional religion. Or could she be looking back at the saintly people in her life, those she held in great regard and loved?
She suggests that this love has now returned and will be given to her husband. In fact so stirred up is she with these innermost feelings she goes on to say in line twelve, with just a dash to separate - this returned love is her very breath. Not only that, but the good and the bad times she's had, is having, will have - this is what the love she has is like. It is all enveloping. And, in the final line, if God grants it, she'll carry on loving her husband even more after she dies. So her love will go on and on, beyond the grave, gaining strength, transcendant.
The poem How Do I Love Thee? by Elizabeth Barrette Browning is about a woman who is in a state of despair, after discovering that her husband has been unfaithful to her.
Explanation:
- The poem is written in the form of a question, which forces the reader to pause and think about the poem’s meaning and content. The poem is an example of Romantic poetry, which uses heightened language and emotions to express the writer’s feelings.
- The first two stanzas of the poem explore the woman’s emotions and thoughts as she discovers that her husband has been unfaithful to her. The woman feels as though her world has been shattered into a million pieces. She feels as though her heart has been ripped from her chest and that she has been deserted by her lover. The woman wants to die because she feels that life is not worth living without her lover.
- The woman then asks the question, "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." She then proceeds to list ways that she loves her husband: "How deep is the ocean, and broad is the sea! / How far, how far, is it? /
- The third stanza explores the woman’s loneliness. The woman has no friends to talk to. No one she knows will listen to her story. She has no one to comfort her, except for her husband. The woman realizes that her life is not worth living without her lover, who has been unfaithful to her. The woman wants to die because without her lover she feels as though her life is meaningless. She has lost the only meaning in her life, which is her husband. The woman has lost her reason to live, which is her husband.
- The final stanza of the poem is more of a response to the earlier stanzas. In this stanza, the woman explains that she loves her lover because he is the only person who has caused her heart to beat. She explains that she has had feelings of despair and loneliness in the past, but that she has not loved anyone before. She is now filled with joy because her lover is the only person who has caused her feelings of happiness.