Literary Reaction Journal 2

How I Love Thee? By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Ⅰ,Summary
The speaker asks how she loves her beloved and tries to list the different ways in which she loves him. Her love seems to be eternal and to exist everywhere, and she intends to continue loving him after her own death, if God lets her.

Ⅱ,Reaction
1.Theme
This theme is love. 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.

2.Title
The title of this poem sets the tone and the reader can immediately relate to the romantic notion of sincere love. Repeating the title in the opening lines relaxes the reader who can enjoy the visual picture created by the flow which stems from this positive and uplifting tone.

3.Rhythm
"ways," "days," and "praise" are all perfect rhymes for each other, while "grace" is a slant rhyme for all three of them.

Ⅲ,Opinion
The tone of the poem is the mood or feeling that its message conveys. This sonnet is a simply a love poem, expressing how deeply she loves her husband. The tone is intimate, loving, sincere.