Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways"

(Sonnets from the Portuguese* 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.

 * Poems inspired by Soror Mariana Alcoforado's love letters 

 E. B. Browning (1806-1861) is one of the women writers evoked by A. Lowell in her poem "The Sisters"(1925).