Happy Valentine’s Day
On Valentine’s Day sweethearts exchange cards flowing with love language. Those now in their golden years probably quoted a bit of poetry during their courtships. Undoubtedly some of them used the often-quoted poems by English poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Elizabeth and Robert Browning exchanged hundreds of love letters, maybe as many as 600, after their friendship began in 1845. Their love story is inspiring, even daring.
Elizabeth, the eldest of 12 children was plagued with head and back pain and lung problems a great deal of her life. A precocious reader of the classics, she wrote myriads of poems, even as a child. She was home-schooled and some of her writings contained Christian themes.
When her poetry titled “Poems” was published in 1884, she became one of the most popular writers in England. She received a letter from another poet named Robert Browning who admired her latest work and wrote her: “I love your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett.”
A friend arranged for Robert to meet Elizabeth on May 20,1845, in her room where she was convalescing. Much of their courtship was conducted in secret and through love letters because her father disapproved of him. One day she sneaked out of the house and met Robert at the parish church where they were married. She was almost 40 and he was six years her junior. The newlyweds moved to Italy, living primarily in Florence. They had one son whom they nicknamed “Pen.” Her father disapproved of the marriage, disinherited her, and never spoke to her again.
Here is one of. Elizabeth Barrett’s poems you may have heard from Sonnet 43:
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.1
Maybe you have heard the first verses from Robert Browning’s poem Rabbi ben Ezra.
Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith “A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!” 2
They were known as one of the most famous couples in the field of literature during their lifetime. Elizabeth was 55 when she died in the arms of her beloved Robert. He continued to write poetry and when he died in 1889, he was buried in the Poets’ Corner in London’s Westminster Abbey.
Maybe you don’t use poetry to express love to your special someone, but some of the classics still live on in the old books, not yet forgotten and worth rereading, if only to make us smile.
Prayer: Father, thank you for those special people who love us. Thank you most of all for Jesus, the Lover of our souls. Amen.
Scripture: [Jesus speaking] And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. (Mark 12:30-31 NKJV)
Footnotes: 1. Elizabeth Barrett, Sonnet 43 from Sonnets from the Portuguese 2. Robert Browning, poem titled: Rabbi Ben Ezra.
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