If thou must love me, let it be for naught
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 lost thy love thereby!
But love for me for love's sake, that evermore.
Thou may'st love one, through love's eternity.

~Elizabeth Barrett Browning~

I love you, not only for what you are,
but for what I am when I am with you.

I love you, not only for what you have made of
yourself, but for what you are making of me.

I love you for the part of me that you bring out;
I love you for putting your hand into my heaped-up
heart and passing over all the foolish, weak things
that you can't help dimly seeing there, and for drawing
out into the light all the beautiful belongings that no
one else had looked quite far enough to find.

I love you because you are helping me to make
of the lumber of my life not a tavern, but a temple;
Out of the works of my every day not a reproach,
but a song.

I love you because you have done more than
any creed could have done to make me good,
and more than any fate could have done
to make me happy.

You have done it without a touch,
without a word, without a sign.
You have done it by being yourself.

~Author Unknown~

It is impossible to capture in words
the feelings I have for you
They are the strongest feelings that I
have ever had about anything
yet when I try to tell you them
or try to write them to you
the words do not even begin to touch
the depths of my feelings
And though I cannot explain the essence of
these phenomenal feelings
I can tell you what I feel like when I am with you

When I am with you it is as if
   I were a bird flying freely in the clear blue sky
When I am with you it is as if
   I were a flower opening up my petals of life
When I am with you it is as if
   I were the waves of the ocean crashing strongly
      against the shore
When I am with you it is as if
   I were the rainbow after the storm
      proudly showing my colors
When I am with you it is as if
   everything that is beautiful surrounds us

This is just a very small part of how wonderful
I feel  when I am with you
Maybe the word "love" was invented to explain
the deep, all-encompassing feelings that I have for you
but somehow it is not strong enough
But since it is the best word that there is
let me tell you a thousand times
I love you more than "love"

      -Poem by Susan Polis Schutz

I loved you once, nor can this heart be quiet;
For it would seem that love still lingers there;
But do not you be further troubled by it;
I would in no wise hurt you, oh, my dear.

I loved you without hope, a mute offender;
What jealous pangs, what shy despairs I knew!
A love as deep as this, as true, as tender,
God grant another may yet offer you.

~Alexander Pushkin~

I won't send roses or hold the door;
I won't remember which dress you wore.
My heart is too much in control,
the lack of romance in my soul
Will turn you gray, kid, so stay away, kid.
Forget my shoulder when you're in need.
Forgetting birthdays is guaranteed.
And should I love you,
 you would be the last to know
I won't send roses and roses suit you so.
 

My pace is frantic my temper's cross;
With words romantic I'm at a loss.
I'd be the first one to agree
that I'm preoccupied with me
And it's inbred, kid so keep your head, kid.
In me you'll find things like guts and nerve,
But not the kind things that you deserve.
And so while there's a fighting
chance just turn and go.
I won't send roses
And roses suit you so.

--Jerry Herman