Monday, May 11, 2015

Neil Diamond's "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon"

Two months ago, when I listened to a Neil Diamond compilation album, I noticed a line in "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon" - "Love you so much can’t count all the ways."  I'd never really paid much attention to that line before, but listening to it that time, I realized that it's a reference to one of the sonnets in Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese:
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.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
It seems like Neil Diamond wants to outdo Browning; the speaker/singer in his song says that he "can't count all the ways," but Browning's speaker actually does proffer a list of seven ways.

I couldn't find any further points of comparison between Diamond's song and Browning's sonnet, but since Browning's sonnet is so well known and since the phrases match so closely (save for Diamond's negation), I think it's an intentional reference.