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 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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View text with all available footnotes
See also Karl Shapiro's parody How do I love you?

Text Authorship:

• by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861), no title, appears in Poems, in Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 43, first published 1847-50 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

• by Ernst Bacon (1898 - 1990), "Sonnet", 1970-74, published 1974 [ voice, piano ], in the collection Fifty Songs [sung text not yet checked]
• by Frederic Balazs (b. 1920), "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways", published 1960 [ high voice and string quartet or chamber orchestra ], from Sonnets after Elizabeth Barrett Browning [sung text not yet checked]
• by Alice Barnett (1886 - 1975), "Sonnet", published 1918 [ high voice, piano ], from Three songs [sung text not yet checked]
• by Carl Milton Beecher (1883 - 1968), "How do I love thee?", published 1921 [ medium voice, piano ], from Songs [sung text not yet checked]
• by Gena Branscombe (1881 - 1977), "How do I love thee?", published 1907 [ medium voice, piano ], from Love in a Life, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Noble Cain (1896 - 1977), "How do I love thee", published 1936 [ SSAATTBB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Louis Cheslock (1898 - 1981), "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways" [ mezzo-soprano or tenor, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Otis Herbert Colvin, jr. (b. 1923), "How do I love thee", 1952 [ high voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Otis Herbert Colvin, jr. (b. 1923), "How do I love thee", 1970 [ high voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Leon Dallin (b. 1918), "How do I love thee", 1953, first performed 1953 [ SATB chorus a cappella ], from Three Songs from the Portuguese [sung text not yet checked]
• by Blevins Davis , "How do I love thee", published 1936 [ medium voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Norman Dello Joio (1913 - 2008), "How do I love thee?", published 1954 [ low voice, piano ], from Songs in English [sung text not yet checked]
• by Norman Dello Joio (1913 - 2008), "How do I love thee?", published 1954 [ high voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Clarence Dickinson (1873 - 1969), "How do I love thee", 1935 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Eleanor Everest Freer (1864 - 1942), "How do I love thee", published 1910 [ medium voice and piano ], from Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 43 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Eleanor Everest Freer (1864 - 1942), "How do I love thee", published 1936 [ duet for mezzo-soprano and baritone with piano ], from opera The Brownings Go to Italy [sung text not yet checked]
• by Abel Gabert , "How do I love thee?", published 1908 [ medium voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Harvey Bartlett Gaul (1881 - 1945), "A Sonnet from the Portuguese", published 1926 [ TTBB chorus and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by James McDonald Gayfer (b. 1916), "How do I love thee", 1974 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Leonard Stanley Glarum (b. 1908), "How do I love thee", published 1964 [ SATB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by William Arthur Goldsworthy (1878 - 1966), "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways", published 1932 [ SSA chorus and piano ], from How Do I Love Thee, note: portions of the text have been omitted by the composer [sung text not yet checked]
• by Forrest Goodenough (b. 1918), "How do I love thee?", published 1956 [ medium voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Ron A. Goodwin (b. 1925), "How do I love thee?" [ SATB chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Henry Kimball Hadley (1871 - 1937), "How do I love thee?", op. 20 no. 3, published 1900 [ high voice, piano ], from Five songs, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Juliana Hall (b. 1958), "How do I love Thee?", 2015 [ soprano and piano ], from How do I love thee? -- 5 songs for soprano and piano on sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Wesley M. Harris , "How do I love thee", 1972, first performed 1971 [ SATB chorus (with divisi) and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Fritz Bennicke Hart (1874 - 1949), "How do I love thee?", op. 116 (Three Sonnets) no. 2 (1935) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Franklin Hopkins (1879 - ?), "How do I love thee", published 1913 [ high voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Joseph M. Hopkins , "How do I love thee?", published 1949 [ high voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Rosalie Housman (1890? - 1949), "The 43rd Sonnet" [ voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Robert William Jones (1932 - 1997), "Sonnet from the Portuguese, 43", 1972, first performed 1973 [ alto, string quartet ], from Love Song [sung text not yet checked]
• by Joseph Kaufer (1909 - 1990), "How do I love thee", published 1951 [ voice and piano ], from Dover Beach and Other Songs, no. 13, Waukegan, Illinois: Lyric-Art [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Libby Larsen (b. 1950), "How do I love thee?", 1991 [ soprano and chamber orchestra or piano ], from Sonnets From the Portuguese , no. 6 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Edouard Lippé , "How do I love thee", published 1941 [ voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by ?, Mrs. J. Chester Madsen , "Sonnet" [ voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by August Maekelberghe (1909 - 1975), "How do I love thee?", published 1970 [ SSAA chorus and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Robert Alexander Markham (b. 1898), "How do I love thee" [ soprano, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by William McCauley (b. 1917), "How do I love thee?", 1967 [ medium voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by William J. McDaniel (b. 1918), "How do I love thee" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Mary Flournoy Passailaigue (b. 1908), "How do I love thee" [sung text not yet checked]
• by Allie Coleman Pierce , "How do I love thee", note: three lines of the sonnet have been omitted by the composer, not noted above [sung text not yet checked]
• by Frederick Piket (1903 - 1974), "How do I love thee?", published 1957 [ four-part mixed chorus, a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Daniel Protheroe (1866 - 1934), "How do I love thee", published 1913 [ medium voice, piano ], from Songs [sung text not yet checked]
• by Harold William Rhodes (1889 - 1956), "A Woman's Love", published 1919 [ high voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Franklin W. Riker , "How do I love thee", published <<1940 [ voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Tom Vernon Ritchie (b. 1922), "How do I love thee?", 1971, first performed 1971 [ soprano, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Kurt George Roger (1895 - 1966), "How do I love thee?", 1952, first performed 1968 [ baritone, harp,and string quartet ], from Three Love Odes for Baritone, Harp, and String Quartet [sung text not yet checked]
• by Ned Rorem (1923 - 2022), "How Do I Love Thee", 1997, published 1999, from Evidence of Things Not Seen, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Annetta Rosser (1938 - 1998), "How do I love thee?", published 1997, from Songs of Love, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
• by William Roy (1928 - 2003), "How do I love thee", published 1948 [ voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by A. A. Smith , "How do I love thee", 1962 [ voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Arthur Edward Stahlschmidt , "How do I love thee", 1940, note: from a letter [sung text not yet checked]
• by Lynn Steele (1951 - 2002), "Sonnet XLIII" [ soprano and flute ], from Three Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Carlos Surinach (b. 1915), "How do I love thee?", published 1966 [ voice and piano ], from Flamenco Meditations [sung text not yet checked]
• by Peter Tahourdin (1928 - 2009), "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways", 1968, first performed 1970 [ speaker, alto, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, 2 violins, viola, violoncello, tape ], from cantata Riders in Paradise [sung text not yet checked]
• by Beulah Threlkeld , "How do I love thee", 1935 [ voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Lajos Vass (b. 1927), "How do I love thee?", c1966 [ soprano and piano ], also set in Hungarian (Magyar) [sung text not yet checked]
• by Harriet Ware (1877 - 1962), "How do I love thee", published 1912 [ high voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by ?, Mrs. J. Eddie Weems , "How do I love thee", from The Browning Cycle of Love Lyrics [sung text not yet checked]
• by Maude Valérie White (1855 - 1937), "How do I love thee", published 1885 [ mezzo-soprano or baritone, piano ], note: five lines have been omitted by the composer, not noted above; London: Ricordi [sung text not yet checked]
• by Juanita Hardy Wilson , "How do I love thee?", published 1957 [ voice, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926) , no title, appears in Sonette aus dem Portugiesischen, no. 43, first published 1908 ; composed by Maria Bach, as Emilie Maria von Bach, Willy Kehrer, Siegmund Schmidt, Harry Ziems.
  • Go to the text.
    
• Also set in Hungarian (Magyar), adapted by Lőrinc Szabó (1900 - 1957) ; composed by Lajos Vass.
  • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
    

Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• CHI Chinese (中文) (M.W. Wang) , "我有多麽愛你？", copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 14
Word count: 127