6 Short Love Letter Quotes From Browning and Barrett, Checked Against the Letters
Six short lines from Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett's 1845-46 letters, each with its date and writer, plus four famous lines that are not in them.
Updated
Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett wrote to each other from January 1845 until the day they left England together in September 1846, and the letters were printed in two volumes after their deaths. They are the best short-line source there is for handwritten cards, and also the most misquoted: lines such as "I am yours, my own love" and "You are my life" are credited to them all over the web, yet neither appears in the text. Here are six short lines that do, each with the date and the writer, checked against the full text of both volumes on Project Gutenberg (ebook 16182 and 73891; the first is the Smith, Elder & Co. fourth impression of 1900).
"I love your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett"
I love your verses with all my heart, dear Miss Barrett,—and this is no off-hand complimentary letter that I shall write.
Robert Browning, The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, vol. 1, from New Cross, Hatcham, postmarked 10 January 1845
This is the first letter of the whole correspondence, written to a poet he had never met. It is a declaration about poems, not yet about her, and it is the better opener for that: he says the work "into me has it gone, and part of me has it become". Use the first clause alone for a card that praises someone's work or mind; it is less a love line than the sentence that started one, which is exactly why it suits a first message.
"You are mine, I am yours"
I have no words for you, my dearest,—I shall never have. You are mine, I am yours.
Robert Browning, vol. 1, letter postmarked 12 January 1846
A year after the first letter, he opens with a sentence that gives up on language, then does the opposite: six plain words. The same letter goes on to say "I shall grow old with you, and die with you". That promise is the real reason to copy this one, because it is a plan, not a compliment. For a wedding card, the two short sentences at the end stand well alone.
"I never shall love you any 'less'"
I do not mean to love you any more just now—so I tell you plainly. Certainly I will not. I love you already too much perhaps … and I never shall love you any 'less,' because it is too much to be made less of.
Elizabeth Barrett, vol. 1, letter postmarked 16 March 1846
Her humour is the best part, and the crop usually loses it: she pretends to ration her love, then admits the love is too large to be reduced. The quote marks around "less" are hers. If you shorten it for a card, keep "too much to be made less of", which is the line people remember, and credit it to Barrett, who wrote it, not to Browning.
"Think of me, love me—my heart is full of you"
Beloved, say how you are—and how your mother is. Here I must end … Think of me, love me—my heart is full of you.
Elizabeth Barrett, vol. 2, letter postmarked 12 June 1846
This is the line behind the often-seen "My heart is full of you", and the date matters because it comes from the summer of 1846, when they were quietly planning to leave her father's house, not from any earlier year. It closes a letter that is mostly worry about whom the plan will hurt. That makes it a good sign-off for a note that has to carry bad news or a long absence, since it asks for something small: remember me.
"When the heart is full it may run over"
You will only expect a few words—what will those be? When the heart is full it may run over, but the real fulness stays within.
Robert Browning, vol. 2, letter of 1 p.m., postmarked 12 September 1846
It was written on the day of the wedding. The editors' footnote to her letter postmarked 11 September records that Browning endorsed its envelope "Saturday, Septr. 12, 1846, ¼11—11¼ A.M.", the hour of their marriage in Marylebone Church, so this note was sent within hours of it. In the same letter he writes that she has been "entirely perfect to me—I would not change one word, one look." The line is a good model for anyone who writes a short note when feelings are too large for a long one: say that the note is short on purpose.
"I shall have you only, to love me"
By to-morrow at this time, I shall have you only, to love me—my beloved! You only! As if one said God only.
Elizabeth Barrett, vol. 2, letter marked "Friday Night", postmarked 19 September 1846
Their departure for Italy was fixed for the next evening: Browning's letter the day before gives the Southampton packet at nine and the train from Nine Elms at five. This is her answer. In the same letter she writes that she is taking his letters with her: "I tried to leave them, and I could not." That sentence is a good line about keeping love letters, and it suits a card that goes with a bundle of them.
Lines credited to the Brownings that are not in these letters
An earlier version of this page printed some of these with dates and settings. I searched the full text of both Gutenberg volumes (ignoring line breaks) and found none of them, so they are not offered as quotations.
| Claimed line | What the text shows |
|---|---|
| "I am yours, my own love." | Not found. "I am yours" appears many times in the letters, in other words (for example "I am yours ever, dear friend"). |
| "I love you from my soul." | Not found as a sentence. "from my soul" occurs in other contexts, such as "Thank you, from my soul." |
| "You are my life." | Not found. Nearest wording: "you are my blessing and life". |
| "My heart is completely and utterly full of you today." | Not found. The real sentence is the one in the June 1846 section above. |
If you want to check any other line yourself, open the Gutenberg text and search a three-word fragment; the transcription is searchable and the letters carry post-marks, which makes dating them easy. The Keats letters work the same way, as set out in Keats's letters to Fanny Brawne, and a longer case study of one famous letter is Beethoven's Immortal Beloved letter.
How to use a letter line on a card
- Give the date, not just the name. "Elizabeth Barrett, 16 March 1846" tells the reader the line is real and lets them find it.
- Keep the speaker straight. The warm jokes are hers, the plain vows are mostly his; the table above shows what happens when a line loses its owner.
- Trim at the clause, not mid-word. Each line above survives at its first sentence; adding "…" marks where you cut, as in the March 1846 line.
- Write your own sentence beside it. The letters did the same: one real line plus a plain fact of the day. For more on how, see how to start and end a love letter, and for other lines people attach to the wrong author, misattributed love quotes.
Questions readers ask
Where can I read the whole correspondence? Both volumes are free on Project Gutenberg: volume 1 (ebook 16182) and volume 2 (ebook 73891). Each letter carries its post-mark date.
Did they really marry in secret? The editors' footnote in volume 2 records Browning's endorsement of the 12 September 1846 envelope as the record of his marriage to Miss Barrett in Marylebone Church. The letters of the following week arrange their departure.
Is "How do I love thee?" from these letters? No. That is a sonnet by Elizabeth Barrett Browning from Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850); these quotations are from the private letters.
