This post was written in response to Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday weekly prompt.
This week’s prompt “how.” Start your post with the word “How.” Bonus points if you end with it too. Join in here! Enjoy!
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.
Victorian authors are my literary masters and mentors. Their stories and poems are part of my imagination.
When I read today’s prompt: How, the first sentence that came to my mind was the famous sonnet by Elizabeth Barret Browning.
The author is telling us about an all consuming passion which will lead her to a state of ideal grace.
At the end of the sonnet, she concludes:
I shall but love thee better afer death.
Nothing will separate her from her lover. because their love will grow after death, when they both presumably enter the realms of eternity, making their love everlasting.
The sonnet is one of the most romantic and passionate in English literature, which is why it’s one of the most famous sonnets, which is still quoted almost 200 years after it was written.
Those of you who read my blog also know how much I like to paraphrase, rewrite or rework Victorian stories into my own writing, so that’s what I’m doing today, with this sonnet.
Instead of directing the words to a lover, it’s about a dream I have.
How do I love thee?
Let me tell you how.
To the depth and breadth and height of my soul.
Even out of sight,
You´re always on my mind.
To the end of my days.
Reaching you, my dream,
Is my ideal grace.
The aim of an all-consuming passion is to achieve a state of ‘ideal grace’.
‘Ideal Grace’ is a divine term which refers to being in a perfect mental state, which is at peace with yourself, your world and your God, Universe, or the superior being or force you may believe in.
For Elizabeth Barrett Browning, this can only be achieved through the culmination of romantic love.
I suggest there are other ways to reach this perfect state, for example by striving for and fulfilling your dreams.
How do you try to reach your ideal grace, tell me how?
Rereading Jane Eyre 
Ooh…ideal grace. I don’t know. But I do agree there are other ways than romantic love. Great take on this. I keep seeing this SOCS and have wanted to take part. Perhaps I will. 🙂
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Do, it’s fun! I don’t take part every week. For me it depends on the word, the inspiration and the time! Weekends are often hectic.
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