A flame of passion is contained in the heart, but is love contained in a simple flame of passion? This timeless saying embodies Elizabeth Barrett Browning's greatest declaration of love. “How do I love you? Let me count the ways” is a poem rich in rhyme and awash with sentimental declarations. This sonnet shows the everlasting love that Browning shares with her husband and how that love can never be destroyed by any power of human or spiritual nature (Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Sonnet 45). Based on the answer to a seemingly simple yet complex question, "how do I love you?" (Browning Line 1) is what this poem is based on. Using literary tools and techniques, Browning releases the powerful emotions that hide behind the ink with which each word is prayerfully written. The title itself shows the many ways Browning loves her husband, so many that she has to count them. The second line focuses on the reality of his love and the extent of his reach. Browning uses anaphora as he repeats the sounds found in “thee” (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. Breadth is breadth, a measure of how far his love is. Height and depth represent how low and high his love is, in relation to the universe. Depth and breadth is an internal rhyme injected to create the essence of the sonnet. Browning goes on to explain how his worship is inexplicable even in the most spiritual sense. Finding true happiness and balance is what this love has given her. Love is a kind of feng shui. Through the use of alliteration, he explains: “My souls can reach, when I feel out… in the middle of paper… I write the most elaborate thoughts. At first, the reader feels like they fully understand the text, but a deeper look reveals something more than just superficial love poetry. The work does not seem like an act of fiction because the reality of the feelings is absorbed into the text. In the end Browning loves him freely, without constraints; 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 numerous poetic devices such as metaphors and alliteration to amplify the implications he intends the reader to feel. “How do I love you? Let me count the ways” is a fairy tale transcended into reality. Love knows no reason but yet defies all reason. Precisely this saying is the crucial point of Browning's poetry. Ultimately, she will “love you better after death.” (Browning Line 14).