How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. (Sonnet 43) Themes

Love is a complex, multi-layered and multi-faceted thing in "How do I love thee?" In fact, the entire poem is concerned with finding, describing, and listing different ways of loving someone. Wheth...

Love is closely linked with admiration in "How do I love thee?" This is partly because the speaker admires her beloved as well as loving him, but it's also because her love for him seems to have re...

"How do I love thee?" is a poem about its own poetic nature, a list and catalog of all the different ways of loving that the speaker experiences. It's very important to this speaker to find phrases...

In "How do I love thee?", the speaker defines herself entirely through the ways in which she loves someone else. Love for another becomes the foundation of her existence. In fact, we think this spe...

The speaker in "How do I love thee?" is determined to carry her love for "thee" beyond the grave, as long as God lets her. In fact, something as violent and destructive as death will only heighten...