This poem is beautiful. It's one of many places I can look to see that love can and does exist, and it describes some of the types of love that I would like to experience. "I love thee to the level of every day's most quiet need, by sun and candle-light" evokes for me that underlying love that isn't outspoken and which is only obvious to the two people who feel it, for whom it is the rhythm of their life. The final sentence is how I know love should be, expressed much better than I ever could. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was clearly a very lucky woman.
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 candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the 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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