How Do I Love Thee?

Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How Do I Love Thee?” (Sonnet 43) is a standout poem in her collection Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850). My wife Elizabeth had given me a copy of this collection early on in our courtship, and I often returned to it during my marriage preparations as it represents for me an intriguing meditation on love, nature, and religion. The love Barrett depicts here is eternal; it transcends space and time. The poetry inspired a lush musical setting in which harmonic resonances accumulate in the piano as the singer lists the various ways her love manifests itself. Intimate moments of hushed reflection are juxtaposed with exuberant bursts of passion. The music expands outward in register and intensity as it develops in an evocation of the love Barrett describes, which, rooted in our experiences here on earth, opens outward to the cosmos. “How Do I Love Thee?” was commissioned by New England Conservatory in celebration of the marriage of Life Trustee David Scudder and Betsy Ridge.