Elizabeth Barrett Browning: love conquers all
August 17, 4:00 PM
Wonderful Subject Today this my Opinion
Perhaps Elizabeth Barrett Browning's most well-remembered poem is called, "How do I love thee, let me count the ways?"
Elizabeth is a true image of a woman of determination who proved against all odds that love conquers all.
According to this biography, "Elizabeth and Robert, who was six years her junior, exchanged 574 letters over the next twenty months. Immortalized in 1930 in the play The Barretts of Wimpole Street, by Rudolf Besier (1878-1942), their romance was bitterly opposed by her father, who did not want any of his children to marry.
"In 1846, the couple eloped and settled in Florence, Italy, where Elizabeth's health improved and she bore a son, Robert Wideman Browning. Her father never spoke to her again. Elizabeth's Sonnets from the Portuguese, dedicated to her husband and written in secret before her marriage, was published in 1850." Poets.org/poet
Her name surfaced recently, however, not because of her love poetry but because of a Turner Classic Movie, "The Barretts of Wimpole Street," a version with Jennifer Jones. Norma Shearer portrayed Elizabeth Barrett in an earlier version. Here is the famous poem.
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 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 but love thee better after death.
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