- 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, Belovèd, 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 mayst love on, through love’s eternity.