The greeting card lyrics “Why Do I Love You So Much?” and the Browning sonnet “How Do I Love Thee?” are both expressions of love and affection, however there are differences between them.
In her sonnet, Browning uses figurative and rhetorical devices to create imagery:
- Personification: “My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight,” “I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.” - Simile: “I love thee freely, as men strive for right.”
- Hyperbole: “I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life
Browning uses end-rhyme in her lines:
- height (3), sight (4), candle-light (6), right (7),
- use (9), lose (11), choose (13)
- breath (12), death (14)
- ways (1), day’s (5), praise (8)
Browning’s use of anaphora adds emphasis and rhythm by beginning multiple lines with “I love thee…”
In reference to the greeting card, the lines are beautiful but do not create imagery, they simply state the reasons why love is being expressed. There isn’t much of a rhythm other than “Why Do I Love You So Much?” being stated twice. I would describe the greeting card as prose with line breaks and pretty words, where the sonnet is poetry with rhyme and rhythm.
