‘For the ends of Being’ can be interpreted in two different ways. If interpreted positively it could be suggesting that love is until people die out, when ‘Being’ becomes extinct, where the word ‘Being’, since capitalized would represent human being. Which again is reference to eternity. However, if interpreted negatively, one could conclude that there is and end to it, that it is not forever, hence the word ‘ends’.
Browning implies that the person the poem is addressed to is the reason she lives. The words ‘sun’ and ‘candle-light’ show that he is her energy source, her life giver, and that he is essential to her. The phrase ‘men strive for Right’; in this case ‘Right’ meaning justice, advocating man’s right and what she would do for him.
Her other attempts to quantify love is when she mentions how the amount of ‘breaths’, ‘smiles’ and ‘tears’ she has had in her life are equivalent to the amount of love she has for him. She concludes the poem with: ‘love thee better after death’ indicating that life is short and therefore not eternal; as is love. However, after death there is eternity and everlasting life. So her final message is that their love can develop and evolve into a much stronger and impregnable emotion.
This sonnet has a passionate and loud voice. Elizabeth Browning is determined to get her voice heard, and to express her love as impressive and grand as she can to show how grateful she is to this man for bringing life back to her after her devastating losses. Her references to ‘Grace’ and ‘Being’ imply God and religion, advocating that she is appreciative to God that she now has found someone to replace her ‘lost saints.’
The rhetorical question; ‘How do I love thee?’ she asks herself at the beginning of the sonnet show that throughout the sonnet she will be focused on answering this question. As she lists the ways she loves him she adds in assonance and alliteration to emphasize the effect; the reference to ‘depth and breadth and height’. The repetition of ‘I love thee’ shows that she is incapable of responding to this question in one sentence; there are too many variations of her love.
This sonnet has a Petrarchan rhyme scheme and like traditional sonnets it has fourteen lines. She uses iambic pentameter, which is more conversational implying that she is talking to him in a casual, soothing tone. The poem is split into two parts; the first eight lines are more metaphysical of the sonnet are metaphysical and descriptive of her love. The last six lines are about her loss and tragedies, about her past and her childhood. Towards the end of the poem the ceasuras start to become more emotional and slow down the pace even more, perhaps to show the importance of the last lines and to get the message across correctly.
The auto-biographic reference to the deaths of her mother and brother suggest that she is the 1st person narrator. As you read through this sonnet you can understand that the love that was lost to this women was a great devastation, and having finding it again with Robert Browning made her see his importance in her life.
