Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 18061861685. Sonnets from the Portuguese iv
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 | 5 |
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: | 10 |
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. |