Explore the poem

Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnet, heard at many thousands of wedding ceremonies, is a passionate expression of her love for her husband, the poet Robert Browning. The point about its use at weddings today is not a flippant one. The universality of this declaration of love written in 1850 inevitably resonates with anyone caught up in the intoxicating happiness of deep love.

The poem has an unusual opening as it begins with a question which is then followed by a playful series of answers that combine a seemingly rational approach measuring the “depth” and “breadth” and “height” of love with elements of spirituality referring to “My soul” and “grace”.

This is a Petrarchan sonnet which is traditionally divided in to an octet (the first eight lines) and a sestet (the final six) with normally a “turn” or a change of direction in the argument on line nine. After a joyful listing of the many ways she loves her partner the poet, in line nine, shifts the focus to a far less happy past referring to her “old griefs”. However this moment of sadness is short lived as the poem returns to a measured celebration of unwavering love which the poet believes may live on even after death.

About Elizabeth Barrett Browning

One of twelve children, Elizabeth Barrett Browning suffered with a lung complaint and a spinal injury. She read widely from an early age and completed her first epic poem by the age of twelve.

After the death of one of her brothers, who was drowned in a sailing accident, Elizabeth became a virtual recluse in her father’s house for a few years, but she continued to write. Her collection of poems published in 1844 was much admired by the poet Robert Browning, and they began to correspond. After 574 letters and 20months, the couple eloped to Italy, where Elizabeth’s health improved and they had a son. Her tyrannical father was vehemently opposed to their marriage.

Barret Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese was an exploration of her love for her husband. The title is deliberately misleading, suggesting that the poems were translations in order to conceal the intensely personal nature of the poems.