Question

Sonnet 43
by Elizabeth Barret Browning
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 every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
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.

___

Adapted from “Sonnet 43,” in Sonnets from the Portuguese, by Elizabeth Barret Browning, Public domain.


Questions
Which excerpt from the poem least supports the idea that the speaker tries to convey the strength of their love?

“I love thee to the depth and breadth and height / My soul can reach”

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”

“I love thee with the passion put to use / In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.”

“I love thee with the breath, / Smiles, tears, of all my life”

Answer 1

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”

Reason: this line is an introduction—a rhetorical question and invitation to enumerate—rather than a direct statement of the magnitude or intensity of the speaker’s love, unlike the other excerpts which explicitly describe its depth, breadth, passion, and all-encompassing nature.