"Sonnet: How Do I Love Thee" by: Elizabeth Barrett Browning & "Sonnet XVIII" by: William Shakespeare <Tab/>Both, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "How Do I Love Thee" and William Shakespeare's "Sonnet XVIII," explore the universal theme of eternal, transcending love. Similarly, both sonnets are confessions of love towards a male subject. Browning's is a passionate love; one that the Greeks referred to as eros. "Eros is Love, who overpowers the mind, …showed first 75 words of 851 total…

…showed last 75 words of 851 total…yet another human attribute of his beloved, with a trait of summer. The author then assures his beloved that his "eternal summer shall not fade." Through this, he uses summer as a metaphor for beauty. The speaker brags that his beloved will never suffer the same fate as a summer's day, because he has dedicated him to "eternal lines." This adds the theme of poetry to a sonnet that had, until now, been about love.