Sonnet · Love
Sonnet 14: If thou must love me, let it be for nought
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning · 1850
1If thou must love me, let it be for nought
2Except for love's sake only. Do not say
3"I love her for her smile—her look—her way
4Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought
5That falls in well with mine, and certes brought
6A sense of pleasant ease on such a day"—
7For these things in themselves, Belovëd, may
8Be changed, or change for thee,—and love, so wrought,
9May be unwrought so. Neither love me for
10Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry,
11A creature might forget to weep, who bore
12Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!
13But love me for love's sake, that evermore
14Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity.
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“Sonnet 14: If thou must love me, let it be for nought” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning — quilloak.com/poems/if-thou-must-love-me
Quick facts
- Poem
- Sonnet 14: If thou must love me, let it be for nought
- Poet
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- Published
- 1850
- Length
- 14 lines
- Form
- Sonnet
- Themes
- Love, For Him
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 14 lines · one 14-line stanza
- End rhyme
- ABBCCBBCDEDEFG.
- Line length
- Lines run 9-11 syllables (median 10), consistent with pentameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
First published before 1929 and checked line by line against the cited copy. Full-text display is based on a United States term-expiry review; status can differ elsewhere.
- Author record
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning1806–1861
- Source record
- Literature in Context: An Open Anthology (University of Virginia)Sonnet 14: If thou must love me, let it be for nought; Sonnets from the Portuguese, first published in her Poems (1850)
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-10-29
- Publication record
- Sonnets from the Portuguese, first published in her Poems (1850)
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 51d7fe4b3bb2a92d…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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