My Last Duches by Robert Browning

Among the many poems that be found in Booth, hunting watch and Mayes The Norton Introduction to Literature, it is without controversy that Elizabeth Barrett Brownings How I dearest Thee makes one of the most interesting reads to many. It is against this screen background that the poem has been chosen for analysis and reflection. Personal Reaction to the Poem The poem How Do I Love Thee by is by far one of the richest poems in terms of both the internal qualities of the poem such as the theme and external qualities such as stylistic devices are considered.For instance, as far as extrinsic or esthetic richness of the poem is concerned, the manipulation of rhymes is heavily extant, not only for the aesthetic purposes, but to also help bolster the theme. Some of the rhymes found in words such as Height and Sight, Grace and Days, Candlelight and Right, Praise and Faith, Use, Lose and Choose, Depth and Breadth, Needy and Purely, Death and Breath (Booth, 125). That the rhymes are used to expound on the simile that the author uses to divulge on the manner of her feelings to her revel unperturbed underscores the theme and extent of bask in the poem.Some of the subordinate clauses that are colored by these similes are as men strive for right and as they turn from praise. Personal Explication of the Poem The gravity of the poem in this case, is not hinged upon the heaviness of the theme or topic in itself, but the manner in which artistic and lingual devices are harnessed to bring out the beauty and weightiness of the topic or theme universe discussed. Particularly, it is through the use of language aesthetically that Browning expresses what love is.For instance, readers get the impression that love should rest uniform, at the mentioning of a love that remains extant throughout the authors life breath in the 12th stanza. That love should be based on tolerant will in lieu of necessity is also underscored in the 7th stanza as the author mentions her love as b eing premised on free will as men strive for that which is right. Among a host of other virtues, love is expressed as being backed up by liable actions by the referring of Love with a passion being to use in the 9th stanza (Browning, 75).Personal Feelings Evoked By the Poem The feelings evoke feelings of genuine love that love that commits itself to and through responsible action, as opposed to fickle feelings stanza 9. This love is expressed as being free stanza 7, pure stanza 8, and constant through the vagaries of life and present at the point of death stanzas 11-14. What the Poem Says About Life and the homophile Condition It is against the backdrop of the above feelings and standpoints adduced by the poem that matters regarding life and human condition come to the fore.Particularly, it is this love that is needed in marriage with the high spates of divorce the world over attesting about its absence. The importance of this love transcends the marriage spectrum to permeate all facets of life and human existence. It is this kind of love that, upon existing, would see man tending(p) to philanthropy to better fellow mans welfare instead of building nuclear arsenals and pampering in the snares of avarice, folly and prejudice. Works Cited Booth, Alison. The Norton Introduction to Literature. WW Norton & Co. Inc. , 2004. Browning, B. Elizabeth. The Wondering Minstrels How Do I Love Thee? New York SAGE, 2005.