Explore "Sonnets from the Portuguese" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
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, Belovëd, 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.