Story Institute Imagine Your Stories Again…

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 a 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.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning expresses in 14 brief lines what most of us take years to realize, let alone express. This poem came from within Sonnets from the Portuguese where her thoughts erupt onto the page where all can see. As you try to share your love and passion, reach further inside yourself and evoke a little more emotion so as to share a little more of Browning’s passion…enjoy…