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 the 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 newfound 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 11, 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, transcendent.

Rhyme and Metre

This Petrarchan sonnet has 14 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, which are slant rhymes. The full rhymes bring closure and help
bind the lines together.

Iambic pentameter is dominant, that is, there are 10 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 feel / ing out / of sight