A flame of passion is contained in the heart, but is love contained in a mere flame of passion? This timeless saying embodies the ultimate declaration of love written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. “How do I love you?” Let me count the ways” is a poem bathed in rhyme and flooded with sentimental confessions. This sonnet shows the perpetual love that Browning shares with her husband and how this love can never be destroyed by any power of a human or spiritual nature (Elizabeth Barrett Browning's: Sonnet 45). Based on the answer to a seemingly simple but complex question: "How can I love you?" (Browning Line 1) is what this poem is based on. Using literary tools and techniques, Browning unleashes the powerful emotions hidden behind the ink in which each word is devotedly written. The title itself shows the many ways Browning loves her husband, so many that she has to count them. The second verse focuses on the reality of his love and the extensions of his radiance. Browning uses anaphora when she repeats the sounds found in “you” (Browning Line 1) and “the” (Browning Line 1). His love is three-dimensional and therefore real, in the sense that all real physical things in the universe are three-dimensional. Width is breadth, a measure of how far his love has traveled. The height and depth represent the depth and height of His love in relation to the universe. The depth and breadth are an internal rhyme injected to create the essence of the sonnet. Browning continues to explain how his adoration is inexplicable, even in the most spiritual sense. Finding true happiness and balance is what this love gave him. Love is a kind of feng shui. Through the use of alliteration, she explains, “My souls can reach, when they feel... the middle of a paper...... write down the most elaborate thoughts. At first, the reader feels like they understand the text well, but a closer look reveals much more than just a superficial love poem. The work does not resemble an act of fiction because the reality of the feelings is absorbed in the text. In the end, Browning loves her freely, without constraint; she loves him purely, without expectation of personal gain. His love is a sacrificial love, trials or tribulations can never give it up. Browning uses many poetic devices such as metaphors and alliteration to amplify the implications she wants the reader to feel. “How can I love you? Let me count the ways” is a fairy tale brought to life. Love knows no reason and yet defies all reason. This saying is at the heart of Browning's poem. In the end, she “will only love you better after death.” (Browning line 14).