"Say Over Again," Because it Does Not Take Much to Do So

You know when you call your parents and say "I Love You" at the end of the call? Or how they say "I Love You" and you are like:
 
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Well, Elizabeth Browning knows all about being on the other side of that call. Elizabeth just wants her main man (who I think is her husband Robert Browning) to tell her that he loves her. Not only that, but she wants him to mean it. When she says to her lover "Though the word repeated/ Should seem a "cuckoo song," as dost treat it" (3-4), she is saying that her lover is using the word in the same way that a person might say "Hello" or "Goodbye."
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Someone causally saying that word can be just as destructive as it is validating. When a person starts to feel doubt about if they are loved or not, this can be especially destructive. Browning says, "... amid the darkness greeted/ By a doubtful spirit-voice, in that doubt's pain/ Cry, "Speak once more--thou lovest!"" (8-10). That doubt is perfectly human and encapsulates thoughts that we all have every once in a while.
 
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Truly loving someone "... in silence with thy soul" (15) is a perfectly reasonable thing to want from anyone you say you love. If you don't really love someone that you say you love, then why would you say it then? wouldn't that just lessen the meaning of love? I like to think that anyone you love and will be loved by will resonate with you. Obviously Browning feels this type of love, but because she will never know the mind of her lover, she will never know what he is thinking. Even though the type of love is different, I would love (Ha!) to leave you with a final quote which says:


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