Poetry · GCSE English Literature
Sonnet 43
GCSE Elizabeth Barrett Browning revision: “How do I love thee?” — Petrarchan structure, love measured and spiritualised, grief and faith, and comparison with Sonnet 29 or When We Two Parted.
She counts love the way you count breaths — depth, breadth, height — then says it will outlast death and even God’s grace if need be.
The important bits
What you need to know
- 1
The title is Sonnet 43 from Sonnets from the Portuguese — a sequence written before marriage to Robert Browning. The exam treats it as a constructed voice, not a biography paragraph.
- 2
Petrarchan (Italian) form: octave (eight lines) often sets the question or problem; sestet (six lines) answers. Here the opening is “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”
- 3
The speaker lists love by measure — depth and breadth and height, sight-lines, ends of Being — turning abstract devotion into countable, almost mathematical proof.
- 4
Tone is earnest, intimate, elevated: love is daily (“by sun and candle-light”), habitual (“quiet need”), and passionate (“as men strive for Right”).
- 5
Religious language runs through the poem: “ideal Grace,” “Praise,” “faith,” “lost saints” — love is spiritual as well as romantic, which distinguishes it from purely physical cluster poems.
- 6
The turn in the sestet intensifies: love continues after death (“if God choose”) and may even exceed what was lost in childhood faith — grief transformed into present devotion.
- 7
Barrett Browning writes from a Victorian woman’s voice claiming intellectual and moral equality in love — the beloved is addressed as “thee,” direct and possessive without Porphyria’s violence.
- 8
Pair with Sonnet 29 for love as inward rescue versus outward catalogue; When We Two Parted for ended love versus enduring vow; Love’s Philosophy for demanded union versus offered devotion.
Quotations worth analysing
Short evidence. Real method.
“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”
Rhetorical question turned into proof. “Count” promises enumeration — the poem is a list-argument, like Love’s Philosophy but inward and devotional rather than nature’s pairing.
“I love thee to the depth and breadth and height / My soul can reach”
Three dimensions make love spatial and total — not one corner of feeling but the whole volume of the soul. Examiners reward linking measure to sincerity.
“I shall but love thee better after death.”
Love exceeds mortality — the sestet’s climax. Pair with Sonnet 29’s remembered love in life; here devotion projects beyond the grave. “If God choose” keeps faith in the frame.
Go deeper
Counting as method, not decoration
Students call it “a list poem about love.” Stronger answers treat counting as epistemology: the speaker proves love by itemising it the way a lawyer proves a case. Each line is a unit of evidence — quiet need, candle-light, lost saints. Compare Love’s Philosophy: Shelley builds from nature outward to a withheld kiss; Barrett Browning builds from the soul outward to death and God. Methods: Petrarchan octave/sestet versus Shelley’s rhyming quatrains. Judgement: Shelley’s love is unanswered demand; Barrett Browning’s is confident offering — same cluster, opposite dramatic situation.
Go deeper
Faith, grief and the sestet turn
The “lost saints” line admits earlier faith may have failed — love now fills that space. That is richer than “she really loves him.” Victorian readers knew Barrett Browning’s illness and confined life; you need only one context clause, then back to the text. The sestet’s “if God choose” does not cancel love; it submits ultimate fate to divine will while insisting love persists. Pair When We Two Parted: Byron’s speaker still cares in secret bitterness; Barrett Browning’s speaker declares openly and forward into death. Same theme of lasting feeling, opposite posture — concealment versus vow.
Go deeper
How to write the comparative paragraph
Model stem: romantic love. Thesis: Both Barrett Browning and Shakespeare present love as transformative, but Sonnet 43 catalogues active devotion while Sonnet 29 is saved by memory after envy. Evidence: “depth and breadth and height” versus “thy sweet love remembered”; “better after death” versus “scorn to change my state with kings.” End: outward proof versus inward rescue. Avoid biography dumps — one line on Sonnets from the Portuguese, then quotation.
See the idea in action
Stem: romantic love. Named Sonnet 43, pair Sonnet 29. Thesis: Both poets present love as elevating the speaker, but Barrett Browning proves love by counting present devotion while Shakespeare’s speaker is lifted only when he remembers the beloved after misery. Evidence: “I love thee to the level of every day’s / Most quiet need” versus “beweep my outcast state”; “love thee better after death” versus lark from “sullen earth.” Judgement: Barrett Browning’s love is declared and future-facing; Shakespeare’s is retrospective rescue.
Exam technique
Turn knowledge into marks
Name the Petrarchan shape — question in the octave, intensified answer in the sestet — and track “count” as the poem’s logic, not mood alone.
Common mistakes
Do not give these marks away
- 01
Treating it as pure biography of the Brownings without analysing the speaker’s method.
- 02
Calling it a Shakespeare sonnet — form and voice differ; compare cluster poems on method.
- 03
Ignoring religious language and reading the poem as only physical romance.
What does the opening “Let me count the ways” mainly establish?
AThat the speaker doubts her love
BThat the poem will prove love by listing distinct forms of devotion — an argument, not a single mood
CThat the addressee has asked for money
DThat the poem rejects religion
Show the answer
That the poem will prove love by listing distinct forms of devotion — an argument, not a single mood. Each following line is a counted “way” — daily, spiritual, enduring past death. The structure is proof by enumeration.
Quick questions
If this is the bit you searched
Is Sonnet 43 the same as Shakespeare’s sonnets?
No. It is by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Petrarchan in shape, from Sonnets from the Portuguese. Compare cluster poems on attitude and method, not on shared authorship.
Best comparison poems?
Sonnet 29 (memory versus catalogue), When We Two Parted (ended versus enduring love), Love’s Philosophy (outward demand versus inward vow).
Why is God mentioned at the end?
Love is spiritual as well as romantic. “If God choose” submits fate to divine will while insisting love continues — faith frames the vow without replacing the beloved.
Is the tone only happy?
It is earnest and elevated, with shadows (“griefs,” “lost saints). Analyse confidence plus past pain — not a simple celebration.