How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43): Symbols

“Sun and candle-light”

Throughout much of the poem, the speaker uses metaphysical imagery to describe the spiritual nature of their love. In lines 5–6, however, the speaker references the common trappings of everyday life:

I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

On the surface, the speaker is saying that their love is an entirely ordinary matter. That is, the adoration they feel for their beloved is something that fulfills and satisfies them even in life’s quietest and most banal moments. In this reading, the speaker’s reference to “sun and candle-light” symbolizes the everyday passage between day and night, which are respectively illuminated by sunlight and candlelight. Thus, the speaker loves their beloved at all times of every day. On a deeper level, it’s also possible to read the speaker’s reference to “sun and candle-light” as symbolic evocations of life and death. As an avatar of the day, the sun relates to wakefulness and vitality. Indeed, the sun’s light is literally life-giving. By contrast, candles are typically used at night, a time of darkness that is often symbolically linked to sleep and death. According to this interpretation, the speaker’s love takes on a metaphysical quality that at once saturates life and survives after death.

“My lost saints”

In lines 11–12, the speaker declares, “I love thee with a love I seemed to lose / With my lost saints.” What does the speaker mean by “my lost saints”? It’s possible to interpret this phrase as a reference to loved ones the speaker has lost in their life. Losing such loved ones can cause profound grief that may initially feel permanent, but which softens with time. Hence why the speaker says they only “seemed to lose” this love. However, it’s also possible to interpret the speaker’s loss of their “saints” as symbolizing a moment of doubt in their faith. In religious traditions such as Christianity, a saint is an exalted figure who’s characterized primarily by their holy virtue. So closely are saints associated with their characteristic virtues that they become linked to certain areas of life. For example, the enormous intellectual gifts of Saint Thomas Aquinas make him the patron saint of learning. Losing one’s saints could therefore mean to lose faith in the holy virtues of faith that saints represent. If the speaker has indeed lost their faith, it was only temporary—the adoration for their beloved has restored the spiritual love they only “seemed to lose / With [their] lost saints.”