Elizabeth Barrett Browing - The Power of Love

Tina Turner says, “What’s love got to do with it?” The Beatles say “All we need is love.” Elizabeth Barrett Browning was in love when she wrote “Sonnets from the Portuguese.” To her fiancé. Love does strange things to us. It makes us say and do things we wouldn’t normally do. In this poem, Browning expresses her love and desire for the man she would later call her husband.

Browning writes how love can make you strong against the world.
When our two souls stand erect and strong stong,
Face to face,silent,drawing nigh and nigher
Until the lengthening wings break into fire
At either curved point, what bitter wrong
Can earth do to us (line 1 - 5)
Love is a powerful force against the world. When you love someone and they love you, there is almost a feeling of invincibility. I can relate to that feeling. In section 43 she relives his kisses to her and how loved she felt. After the kiss to her forehead she says “That was the chrism of love, which love’s own crown / With sanctifying sweetness, did precede.” (line 10 & 11) The final part of the poem is the most emotional and powerful. “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” (line 1). You can feel the depth of the emotion in her words. It is so beautiful. It is almost as if the climax of this poem comes at the end. She tells him she will love him all her life and if God permits it, she will love him after that. “ – and, if God choose, / I shall but love thee better after death.” (line 14)

Love is so beautiful and those of us who have it are lucky. We are even more fortunate if we are filled up with it. The love for a child can do this. I love and adore my husband. He is my best friend and someone I am so lucky to be able to spend my life. As a mother my heart swells to bursting over my son. He is my only child and I am so blessed to have a child like him. When so much is wrong with the world, I look at him as my glimmer of hope. He already makes this world a better place for being in it. I hope that everyone in the world finds love. Love makes us stronger and keeps us together when the world tries to destroy us.