From Sonnets from the Portuguese and Other Love Poems
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
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 unwrought 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 lose thy love thereby!
But love me for love's
sake,
That evermore thou
may'st love on,
Through love's eternity.