Considerate because of her personal lifelong physical suffering but reminiscent with insightful intellectual thought, Browning's poems are among the best offerings of the English poetry during the nineteenth century. By written literature, she passionately addressed issues of social injustice such as slavery, child labor, and gender prejudice. However, she as well did love poems for instance her most popular piece, "How do I love thee? Let me count."
This poem is divided into two parts; the first part where she describes her emotions and feelings as if she feels love with her whole being, and the second where she talks of love as being a normal daily experience. She uses figurative imagery in the line "my soul can reach when feeling out of sight." In the sonnet, Elizabeth illustrates her love to Robert Browning. She does this through comparing a number of things and describing feelings by visiting her past and envisions her future. This is evident from the lines of "my childhood faith" and "after my death." We are able see a bit of her history "in my old grief" where she refers to the death of her brother. She as well tries to see the intensity of her love when she to compare her love with things like "I like thee purely as they turn from praise." There is also the line where she compares her former decisions on loving with the present ones; "I love thee with the love I seemed to lose."
Rhyme scheme is evident and is ABBACDDCEFEFEF. The rhyming words in the poem though differ as the poem goes down. Height, sight, and light, right are some of the sequential rhymes in the sonnet. It has a steady rhyming sequence, which however cannot be recognized because it does not have the same number of syllables in each line. The prevailing figure of speech in the poem is anaphora; use of "I love thee" in eight lines and "I shall but love thee" in the ending line. The repetition brings about rhythm while reinforcing the theme.
The tone of the poem is quite serious and desperate since she is trying to express her feelings. However, the mood and atmosphere of the poem is calm, tranquil, and caring evident from the constant mention of her love extents to her lover. There is absence of sadness and depression in the poem apart from the grief.
There is alliteration in the sonnet; "depth and breadth and height" that however does not come out clearly. In some lines finishing with "thee" and starting with "the" or "they" marks the use of alliteration.
The poem can be compared to Whitney Houston's song "I will always love you" since they speak the same theme, love. The song shows the far limits the singer can go to hold the love amidst anything just like the way Elizabeth puts it. There is also evidence of separation just like in the poem where Mr. Browning is far from Elizabeth; Whitney is also leaving her lover. The intensity of her love is high too from the way she sacrifices to leave him to get out of his way of wanting his needs.
The mood of the song however is sad and calm as compared to that of the poem. However, the tones are same; serious and desperate, since the writer is expressing her true feelings as well as trying to show her lover the love she has got for him with the intent of winning back his love. The rhyme scheme in the song is far more systematic than that in the poem. There is a constant rhyme scheme in each line though with different words.
The diction is perfect for a love song with the use of such words as "My darling." The repetition as well tends to bring out the tone of the song in the chorus and the alliteration tends to support it.