Sonnet 43

• Key Themes

  love and relationships

  faith and worship
• poems to compare to

  she walks in beauty

  valentine
• context


  she is writing to Robert Browning - another poet who she later marries

  her father disapproved of her relationship - wanted her to marry someone else - he forbade her from seeing Browning

  she came from a wealthy family

  expresses her love for Browning - she wrote 44 sonnets - love poems to him

  she was intensely religious
• form and structure


  petrarchan sonnet

  first 8 lines are called an octave - poses the question

  last 6 lines are called a sestet - gives the answer

  iambic pentameter
• how do i love thee? let me count the ways
• the depth, and breadth and height
• I love thee freely
• I love thee with the passion put to use
• I love thee with a love i seemed to lose
• I shall but love thee better after death