Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote these forty-four sonnets secretly during her courtship with Robert Browning, gave them to him after their marriage, and he insisted they be published. The title is a feint, pretending they are translations. They document the resurrection of a woman who had thought herself too ill, too old, too devoted to her tyrannical father to love. The language is deliberately archaic, Shakespearean, yet the emotions are utterly present. 'How do I love thee' may be the most famous love poem in English.