How Do I Love Thee

[maleonpyg]

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace,
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle light.I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,-I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!-and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.


Hi,

The above is the Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barret Browning. I have problems interpreting the bolded parts. I'd render them into the following. Correct me if I am wrong. Thanks.



1. When I feel I can't see the ends of our lives and God's perfect Grace. I love you to the degree of daily most basic need day and night.

2. I love you with a love that I seemed to no longer have; this love has gone with my lost angels.

3. If God permit, I shall only love you better after we both pass away.

[OrphanPip]

1. When I feel I can't see the ends of our lives and God's perfect Grace. I love you to the degree of daily most basic need day and night.

Close, the point is the completeness, the range of scale her "soul can reach." It reaches from the "ends of Being and ideal Grace," these are things of extremes, the ends of existence and to the realm of God, where as her soul also loves during periods of "quiet need." The by sun or candlelight evokes the completeness of time, day and night, as well as mirrors the movement of scale from the preceding lines from the large to the small.



2. I love you with a love that I seemed to no longer have; this love has gone with my lost angels.

She's saying that she loves him in a way she thought she couldn't love anymore, and that this was the way she loved her "lost saints." That last phrase is difficult because it's not certain what a lost saint is, it's an interesting evocation of childhood faith as well.



3. If God permit, I shall only love you better after we both pass away.

That's spot on.