Why Do I Love You?

I love you,

Not only for what you are

But for what I am when I am with you.

I love you,

Not only for what 

You have made of yourself,

But for what

You are making of me.

I love you

For the part of me that you bring out;

I love you,

For putting your hand into my heaped up heart,

And passing over

All the foolish, weak things

That you can't help

Dimly seeing there,

And for drawing out

Into the light

All the beautiful belongings

That no one else had looked

quite far enough to find.

And after all,

Perhaps that's what love really is.

Annabel Lee

It was many and many a year ago,

   In a kingdom by the sea,

That a maiden there lived whom you may know

   By the name of Annabel Lee;

And this maiden she lived with no other thought

   Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,

   In this kingdom by the sea:

But we loved with a love that was more than love--

   I and my Annabel Lee;

With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven

   Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,

   In this kingdom by the sea,

A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling

   My beautiful Annabel Lee;

So that her highborn kinsman came

   And bore her away from me,

To shut her up in a sepulcher

   In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,

   Went envying her and me--

Yes!--that was the reason (as all men know,

   In this kingdom by the sea)

That the wind came out of the cloud by night,

   Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love

   Of those who were older than we--

   Of many far wiser than we--

And neither the angels in heaven above,

   Nor the demons down under the sea,

Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams

   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes

   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side

Of my darling--my darling--my life and my bride,

   In her sepulcher there by the sea,

   In her tomb by the sounding sea.

You'll Love Me Yet 

You'll love me yet!—and I can tarry 
Your love's protracted growing: 
June rear'd that bunch of flowers you carry, 
From seeds of April's sowing. 

I plant a heartfull now: some seed 
At least is sure to strike, 
And yield—what you'll not pluck indeed, 
Not love, but, may be, like. 

You'll look at least on love's remains, 
A grave 's one violet: 
Your look?—that pays a thousand pains. 
What 's death? You'll love me yet! 

 Robert Browning

Love is Patient, Love is Kind

Love is patient, love is kind.

 It does not envy, it does not boast,

 it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking,

it is not easily angered,

it keeps no record of wrongs.

 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts,

 always hopes, always preserves.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

A Woman's Last Word

Let's contend no more, Love,

Strive nor weep:

All be as before, Love,

--Only Sleep!

What so wild as words are ?

I and thou

In debate, as birds are,

Hawk on bough !

See the creature stalking

While we speak !

Hush and hide the talking,

Cheek on Cheek!

What so false as truth is,

False to thee ?

Where the serpent's tooth is

Shun the tree-

Where the apple reddens

Never pry-

Lest we lose our Eden's,

Eve and I.

Be a god and hold me

With a charm!

Be a man and fold me

With thine arm!

Teach me, only teach  Love!

As I ought

I will speak thy speech, Love,

Think thy thought-

Meet, if  though require it,

Both demands,

Laying flesh and spirit

In thy hands.

That shall be tomorrow

Not tonight:

I must bury sorrow

Out of sight:

-Must a little weep, Love,

     (foolish me!)

Ands so fall asleep, Love,

Love by thee.

Robert Browning

If Thou Must Love Me

If Thou must love me, let it be for naught

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, many

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 they love thereby!

But love me for love's sake, that evermore

Though mayest love on, Through love's eternity.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I will not let thee go

I will not let thee go

Ends all our month-long love in this?

Can it be summed up so,

Quit in a single kiss?

I will not let thee go

I will not let thee go,

If thy words' breath could scare thy deeds,

As the soft south can blow

and toss the feathered seeds,

Then might I let thee go.

I will not let thee go.

Had not the great sun seen, I might;

Or were he reckoned slow

To bring the false to light,

Then might I let thee go.

I will not let thee go.

The stars that crowd the summer skies

Have watched us so below

With all their million eyes,

I dare not let thee go.

I will not let thee go.

Have we not chid the changeful moon,

Now rising late, and now

Because she set too soon,

And shall I let thee go?

I will not let thee go.

Have not the young flowers been content,

Plucked ere their buds could blow,

To seal our sacrament?

I cannot let thee go.

I hold thee by too many bands:

Thou sayest farewell, and lo !

I have thee by the hands,

And will not let thee go.

Robert Bridges

When I was one-and-Twenty

When I was one and twenty

I heard a wise man say,

"Give crowns and pounds and guineas

But not your heart away;

Give pearls away and rubies

But keep your fancy free."

But I was one-and-twenty,

No use to talk to me.

When I was one-and twenty

I heard him say again,

"The heart out of the bosom

was never given in fain;

'Tis paid with sighs a-plenty

and sold for endless rue."

And I am two-and-twenty,

And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.

A.E. Housman