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Days of Courtship

Being an avid reader of time-honoured literature and pre-contemporary works, I have spent days and nights living the stories told by the legendary Jane Austen and playing the arbitrator in Louisa May Alcott’s infamous trilogy. I must confess that I had been most profoundly captivated by the magic of the letters between Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning during the early years of their courtship. The letters that were devotedly passionate yet inscribed with utmost humility.

Mind you, this is not a historical literature lesson. It’s no more than a momentary look at what I believe to be the world’s greatest courtship in literature.

Robert Browning was fascinated by Elizabeth’s poems and eminence as one of the greatest poets of the Victorian era. In his very first letter to her, Robert wrote:

I love your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett, ---and this is no off-hand complimentary letter that I shall write, ---whatever else, no prompt matter-of-course recognition of your genius, and there a graceful and natural end of the thing.

Little did he know about the exquisite sonnets she had written during their early days, and it was only after their marriage that he’d convince her to publish them. Perhaps it was the 43rd sonnet that had captivated the scholarly Robert and made him prisoner of her heart. Who wouldn’t be as such affected when those words had been written to him and for him:

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

For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of everyday's

Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

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.

Days of courtship... Cherish them, for they happen to be the merriest of days!

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