The Soul's Expression
WITH stammering lips and insufficient sound / I strive and struggle to deliver right
XIV - If thou must love me, let it be for nought
❦
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 may'st love on, through love's eternity.
More poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
VII - The face of all the world is changed, I think
The face of all the world is changed, I think, / Since first I heard the footsteps of thy soul
XIII - And wilt thou have me fashion into speech
And wilt thou have me fashion into speech / The love I bear thee, finding words enough,
XI - And therefore if to love can be desert
And therefore if to love can be desert, / I am not all unworthy. Cheeks as pale