SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE (IV)
by: Elizabeth Barrett Browning
(1806-1861)
- F 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, 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.
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