The Buckley School's founder believed that all speakers should hone their presentation skills by reading poetry out loud. We keep that worthwhile practice alive by including a poem in our magazine each month for you to read aloud.
An English poet of the Romantic Movement, Elizabeth Barrett Browning had a life that sounds like the plot of an outrageous romance novel--evil father, lonely childhood, poor health, locked away from the world until a young poet discovers her work, writes her no less than 574 letters, then helps her escape to Florence, Italy, where she finds friends and creates a family, pursues her writing career, and fights social injustices.
Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning
Her Sonnets from the Portuguese, dedicated to her husband Robert Browning, includes one of the best-known love poems (or at least love lines) in the English language. She also wrote a verse novel, Aurora Leigh.
The letters between Barrett and Browning inspired the 1930 play The Barretts of Wimpole Street.
How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)
By ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING
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 candle-light.
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.
From Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown, here's Sally reading Sonnet 43 aloud while Snoopy provides his interpretation:
