If Thou Must Love Me

If Thou Must Love Me, Let It Be For Nought

By Elizabeth Browning

f thou must love me, let it be for nought
Except for love’s sake only. Do not say
“I love him for his way
Of speaking gently, for a trick of thought
That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
A sense of 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 cheek 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.

Edited to my benefit