Elizabeth Barrett Browning | 1808-1861 | English
from Sonnets from the Portuguese
| written about 1845–1846 | first publication: 1850 public domain
14
If thou must love me, let it be for nought
Except for love's sake only. Do not say
"I love her for her smile – her look – her way
Of speaking gently – for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine and certes brought
A sense of pleasant ease on such a day" –
For these things in themselves, Beloved, may
Be changed, or change for thee, - and love so wrought
May be unwrout so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry –
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long, and loose they love thereby!
But love me for love's sake, that evermore
Thou may'st love on, through love's eternity.
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