*syntactic patterning of "I love thee" makes the poem sound like a declaration of her love
"depth and breadth and height"β¨
*tricolon of half rhymes draws onto units of measurement
*hyperbole : shows the scale of her love
CONTEXT
*Eloped
*Their relationship broke social conventions
*suffered from heath conditions : sonnet explores theme of transience - temporariness
*Religious society
*Victorian genre
THEMES
virture
religion
everlasting love
unselfish love
"sun and candle-light"β¨
*semantic field of size captures the magnitude of her love that can be measured in different sizes "the sun" which fuels all life, this is compared to "candle light" which appears marginal in comparison
How do I love thee?
*The poem starts with a question - which the main body of the poem attempts to answer- the sonnet takes on a form of a self-fulfilling answer
