| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | Sonnets from the Portuguese
IV. ‘If thou must love me, let it be for naught’ | | By Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) |
| | | 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. | | | | |
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