IF THOU MUST LOVE ME

Name: If Thou Must Love Me: (From Sonnets from the Portuguese) - If Thou Must Love Me
Author: Elizabeth Browning

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 mayst love on, through love’s eternity.

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Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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Chicago: Elizabeth Browning, If Thou Must Love Me: (From Sonnets from the Portuguese) Original Sources, accessed October 31, 2025, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=M54CSQM9MHS1QN2.

MLA: Browning, Elizabeth. If Thou Must Love Me: (From Sonnets from the Portuguese), Original Sources. 31 Oct. 2025. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=M54CSQM9MHS1QN2.

Harvard: Browning, E, If Thou Must Love Me: (From Sonnets from the Portuguese). Original Sources, retrieved 31 October 2025, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=M54CSQM9MHS1QN2.