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 a sense of pleasant ease on a 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 mayst love on, through love's eternity.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
