'How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.'

I remember many years ago ‘Fink’ (aka David Phillips-RIP) and I were at Boonsboro Middle School. We always seemed to get into a little mischief and one day we got our "tails" smacked for throwing raisins in TV class.

At the new high school, Fink and I were just average students in Ms. Lakin’s art class. We had to make an art project one time and the "scrap pieces of debris" we put together had little chance of ending up on display at the Louvre Art Museum. Ms. Lakin was most generous in giving us a passing grade.

But Fink and I did have a little bit of talent to consider; all people do you know!

I will forever remember Mr. Leasure’s English class.

One day Mr. Leasure gave "Fink" the assignment of reciting some poetry in class, and contrary to general opinion Fink took this assignment quite seriously.

His assignment?

Fink was to recite Elizabeth Barret Browning’s poem, "How do I love thee, let me count the ways" And I have to tell .you, his delivery was one of the finest performances I’ve ever seen.

I didn’t read much poetry back then but came to learn more about this writer, poem and her expressed "love" much later in life.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was an English poet who lived in the 1800s. She wrote many poems and one involved the subject of "love."

Have you ever been really in love? How would you describe that feeling?

Browning described her love for her husband Robert in a Sonnett 43 called "My Little Portuguese" (the name she gave fondly to her husband). Her poem begins:

"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."

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Have you ever paused to think about a deep feeling of love for someone? In my 34 years of working in a prison, I probably could count on five fingers the number of times I ever heard an inmate speak the word love; staff seldom too.

Browning loved her husband with every ounce of "her soul."

"I love thee to the level of every day’s most quiet need, by sun to candle light," wrote Browning.

This line was defined as a love from morning to night; or maybe even from birth to death; have you ever had a really unique love for someone?

When I think of love today and this line, I remember my love I have for my wife Sheila, but never could quite describe it the way Browning does. This poem has more meaning today for me than first heard in Fink’s recital. Browning continues:

"I love thee freely, as men strive for right; I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. I love thee with passion put to use in my griefs, and with my childhood’s faith."

Elizabeth’s love for her husband Robert "was everlasting’ and ‘special’."

Have you ever heard Andy Williams sing, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing? Williams sings about love:

"Love is a many splendored thingIt's the April rose that only grows in the early SpringLove is nature's way of giving a reason to be livingThe golden crown that makes a man a king."

Elizabeth Browning’s love was most affectionate too as she concludes her poem:

"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."

When Fink first recited that poem in English class, I listened but didn’t quite have a full understanding to the meaning of "love" myself back in those days.

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In many families there is an abundance of love examples shared; in many others not so much. Perhaps if Browning’s poem of love from one person to another had some better teachings in this life, I wonder how this world might change.

Elizabeth certainly had an adoring and eternal love for her "little Portuguese" Robert that was destined to last from "sun to candle light" from her life’s sunrise to sundown.

"I shall love thee better after death"

As I grow older, and reflect on the love of my life, “I love you” now has a much deeper meaning for me after reflecting on Browning’s sonnet.

And when I hear that song sung by Andy Williams, I have come to learn too:

"Love, indeed, is a many splendored thing."

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Thank you, Fink, for your fine recitation.

May love embrace each one of you this very day.

Pete Waters is a Sharpsburg resident who writes for The Herald-Mail.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: 'How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.'