Poet’s Corner: A Sonnet of Love

15 January 2026

Although we are a month away from this special day, we will let this post stand as is, since it follows from the previous poetry post, and sets up the next. (14 February 2014) Happy Valentine’s Day to all those who are, or have been, in love! To mark this occasion, we give you a sonnet, in the Italian form, that is most often mistaken for one of Shakepseare’s sonnets, one I often used on quizzes to keep the students honest, so to speak, remembering one key idea: that Shakespeare never used the Italian form, always the English, so that clue alone should be enough to identify the following sonnet, and we add that we have, again, added a line space to separate the octave and sestet for ease of understanding:

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 everyday’s
Most 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 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 love thee better after death.

This Italian sonnet, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, is a classic love poem, one that is well known throughout the world. There are several features, beyond the form, that trip students into thinking it is Shakespeare–capitalizing words like ‘being’ and ‘grace’, as also the use of the archaic ‘thee.’ There is, however, another feature that disqualifies it as Shakespearian, or from the English Renaissance, the repeated use of enjambment: Renaissance poets never used this device, except by accident, while those of the Victorian period used it heavily, which ‘hides’ the end rhymes. Notice lines 2-3: “I love thee to the depth and breadth and height / My soul can reach,” and how the ‘phrasing’ of these lines carries over from one to the next (as does every line ending without a punctuation mark) causing the reader to pause, or at least hesitate, drawing attention to the three dimensions mentioned and consider just how deep, wide, and tall her love is, answered as the ‘thought’ continues in the following line.

All technical matters aside, this sonnet expresses her love for Robert, removing all possible limiting factors, and lodging in our minds as the ideal love poem. Enjoy on behalf of any and all who have loved with this same kind of devoted passion! Also, we have a collection of “Love poems” entitled Words Fail, for those incurable romantics!