Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnet 43 has one of the most recognizable and romantic openings in all of poetry. "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." The poem starts off on a light tone. She is asked the question of how much she is in love with the person that is being referred to. Then she states that she will count the ways, the reasons that she is in love with him. This in itself is a bit unorthodox considering that she is expressing her love in a list form. Whenever you are madly in love with someone, as she considers herself to be, you don't typically write it all out and give your significant other a list of reasons.
As she goes into her "list", we see how she defines this love that they share. "I love thee to the level of everyday's Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light." Her love for him is something that she has to have in order to survive. It's like the sun and the light from a candlestick providing her warmth and light in the darkness. It could also be interpreted as what she needs in the real world in order to survive. She needs him in order to have food, shelter and to be provided for. She literally needs him in order to survive. This turns into not just some love poem, but almost a letter of gratitude thanking him for marrying her and taking on the responsibility of being her husband.
She claims to love her husband and to feel gratitude for the things that he does for her, but this last line suggests otherwise. "I shall but love thee better after death." If she claims to love him so much, then why would she love him even more when he is dead and why would she even want him to die in the first place? After he dies she will become a widow and live a life completely alone. On the other hand, she will also receive all of his money, land and anything else that is in his name.
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