If you’re wondering why I’m posting so many romantic poems and other things along those lines, I should probably say that one week from this coming Sunday will mark the 23rd anniversary of my marriage to the world’s most wonderful wife—well, at least in my eyes. May 17th will be quite hectic this year and we will not be likely to do a whole lot of celebrating, but I don’t want it to all pass by without my being able to pay tribute to the wonderful gift God gave to me in my wife.
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
The 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.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1806–1861
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