XLIII - How do I love thee? Let me count the ways
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. / I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
Thou comest! all is said without a word.
I sit beneath thy looks, as children do
In the noon-sun, with souls that tremble through
Their happy eyelids from an unaverred
Yet prodigal inward joy. Behold, I erred
In that last doubt! and yet I cannot rue
The sin most, but the occasion--that we two
Should for a moment stand unministered
By a mutual presence. Ah, keep near and close,
Thou dove-like help! and when my fears would rise,
With thy broad heart serenely interpose:
Brood down with thy divine sufficiencies
These thoughts which tremble when bereft of those,
Like callow birds left desert to the skies.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. / I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
What’s the best thing in the world? / June-rose, by May-dew impearled;
Say over again, and yet once over again, / That thou dost love me. Though the word repeated
The face of all the world is changed, I think, / Since first I heard the footsteps of thy soul