To Love Intensely: E. Browning and Sonnet 43

It is written in many reviews that Elizabeth Browning’s sonnet 43 from “Sonnets from the Portuguese” is purely about the intense love she felt for her soon to be betrothed Robert Browning.  From the every popular quoted first line of “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways:” this seems to be an apt assumption. However, what is one to see when this poem is looked at through the eyes of someone who incapable of feeling much of anything? When the poem is broken down through the malevolent synapse of Ted Bundy, the words take a much more sinister air.

The first line, as mentioned above, is as sweet as sugar as it fawns over the love interest, creating a false sense of security. The narrator goes on to list all of the ways in which their love is felt, such as loving “...thee to the depth, and breadth, and height/ My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight.” Here, this line is misleading. The lines again are singing a melodious song of sweet love but they truly never say anything. A sociopath has no conscience which can also be interpreted into having no soul, as well, as this is the moral compass which guides humans. The theme of empty beautiful words being spun into a loving lullaby continue on with such lines as “I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;” “I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise;” as well as “I love thee with the passion put to use/ In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.”

The poem concludes with the lines “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.” Here the true sociopath can be felt delivering a slice of truth as a sweet pale face falls onto his shoulder, lulled by his “loving” words. He confides just enough of himself within these lines to seal the trust of his victim. His torment of being lost, as seen in the “lost saints,” as well as just enough vulnerability, as seen in loving measurement through his breath, smiles and tears, locks everything he needs into place. The final line of loving one after death, if God so chooses, is the last narcissistic blow as the hand that was believed to be full of love takes the life of his victim sending them to this God who makes all these supposed choices when in fact it is he who is in true control.

It may be true that the original intent of this poetical work was to raise the praises of true love. However, shown here is the power of perception. When one takes a work and looks at through the eyes of another, works take on a whole new meaning, even if the work’s meaning seems to plainly stated as in Sonnet 43 of “Sonnet of the Portuguese.”