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Elizabeth Barrett Browning - Sonnet XIV: If Thou Must Love Me
Work rating: Medium

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, 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 lose thy love thereby!
But love me for love`s sake, that evermore
Thou may`st love on, through love`s eternity.
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