Sonnets From The Portuguese XIV
By Elizabeth Barrett Browning
If thou must love me, let it be for nought
Except for loves 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, Belovd, may
Be changed, or change for thee, and love, so wrought,
May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
Thine own dear pitys wiping my cheeks dry,
A creature might forget to weep, who bore
Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!
But love me for loves sake, that evermore
Thou mayst love on, through loves eternity.