How a Literary Work Relates to My Own Life Essay

I think everyone can recall their first love. The emotions that one feels when remembering the look, smell, touch and feel of their first love are intense and can bring on incredible feelings of happiness. Finding a first love typically occurs in adolescence when humans have the ability to feel everything so much stronger than at any other time in life. Unlike any other person, a first love will never be forgotten and details about the romance will forever be etched in the brain. The details surrounding a first love do not often fade with time and remain as clear as when the relationship with a first love was reality. Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem, â€Å"How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways† can be used to once again evoke the emotions of a first love into the present day. The overall theme of this poem is intense romantic love. I think this theme can be applied to my high school years as well. Similar to many high school students, I engaged in a relationship with my first love that lasted for over two years. While this person did not turn out to be my one true love, I will never forget the feelings associated with the relationship nor will the love I felt then ever fade into nothingness. As a high school student, this relationship with my first love was the main focus of my life. The love I felt was all consuming just as the love that Elizabeth Barrett Browning portrays in this poem. I felt such an intense connection and I loved so unconditionally that my entire being was filled with feelings of love and it took my breath away. This love was exactly what Browning spoke about as being a love â€Å"with my childhood’s faith† (Browning, 1850). I was able to love with the faith of a child because I had not yet learned that the world is often a cruel place where love fails on a regular basis. My first love experienced my love based on a faith that it would last forever. The imagery in this poem enables a reader to imagine a dreamy state of complete happiness that nothing can intrude upon. This is the feeling I will always associate with my first love. The idea of a romantic relationship was so new and exciting that nothing could bring me down from the clouds. As a matter of fact, it is difficult for me to recall world events or even events in my own life at this time with the same clarity as my feelings of romantic love. Everything in my life took a backseat to the dreamy state of being in love. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was able to bring these feelings back to me as I read the poem. Her words invoke the same feelings of first love that I had into a written poem. It is easy for me to understand the type of love Browning had for the recipient of this poem because I have felt the same kind of love in my lifetime. Once again, the imagery of this poem enables me to remember the fearless way I was able to love when my understanding of the world was not marred with the failings of relationships. The final line sums of the entire set of emotions associated with a true love. â€Å"I shall but love thee better after death† (Browning, 1850) can be interpreted to mean that Browning would die without the love of the person she is writing to. I think this is the way that many adolescents feel about their first love. I remember feeling intense dread when I even considered that my first romantic relationship would end. The days took on new meaning and my entire being became wrapped up in another person and I could not ever imagine my life without that love. Looking back, I think I felt that without my first love in my life, I would rather die. I recall thinking that if I could not hold onto the relationship then I would rather be dead. Of course, time and maturity changed my way of thinking and I realized that I could live without my first love. However, my life will never be the same because of that relationship. It meant so much to me at the time that I know exactly how Elizabeth Barrett Browning felt about the recipient of the poem. I loved so strongly and so deeply that my entire life was changed forever. I loved as I had never loved before or have ever loved since then. My first love will forever hold a place in my heart and my life is better for having the chance to love so freely. Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. (1850). How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.