How Do I Love Thee?

"How Do I Love Thee" is the sixth and final song of Libby Larsen's cycle Sonnets From the Portuguese, which sets the text of Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

The audio for "If I Leave All For Thee" and "How Do I Love Thee" is made possible through a collaboration between the Hampsong Foundation and SongFest. The performers are Anne Jennifer Nash, soprano, and Donna Loewy, piano, and this performance took place at Pepperdine University at SongFest 2010.

Date: 1991Composer: Libby LarsenText: Elizabeth Barrett BrowningSong Collection: Sonnets From the Portuguese

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Text

XLIII. “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…”
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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 everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
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.

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