Summary

The speaker poses the rhetorical question, "How do I love thee?" to her beloved, announcing that she will "count the ways" in response (1). She says that she loves her beloved in a way that consumes her entire soul, beyond the physical sensation of living and at the end of all sight, sound, and touch. She expands on this assertion by noting that her beloved consumes her days and nights, referring both to the light of the sun and the light of the candle's flame in the darkness.

Next, she tells her beloved that she loves him "freely," "purely," and with the "passion" that was present in her old sufferings, as well as and the faith of her childhood (7-10). For each of these ideas, she provides a simile of how her love manifests, comparing it to men's actions on earth. She also speculates that...