TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF IF THOU MUST LOVE ME, LET IT BE FOR NOUGHT

The sonnet If Thou Must Love Me, Let It Be For Nought by Elizabeth Barrett Browning is in Shakespearean form since it is composed of fourteen lines arranged into three quatrains and a final couplet. Both the end of the group of quatrains and of the couplet is identified by a full stop. The title coincides with the first line, so the sonnet is part of a collection.

Considering the title, the reader understands that the topic of the sonnet is love, and the narrating voice (the poetess) talks about what she considers the right reason to love.

In the first two lines the central question is presented to the reader: the poetess affirms that, if her lover wants to love her, he should do that for love’s sake, and not for any other reason. As a matter of fact, the poetess advices her lover not to say he loves her because of her physical appearance or intellective qualities, since, as the narrating voice explains further down, these things are changeable, and if love is based on one of them, it is bound to eventually fade away. In the last quatrain, the poetess refuses also to be loved for her lover’s pity of drying her tears, since, if she forgets how to weep, love should also be forgotten.

The concluding couplet presents the solution to this problem: her lover should love her just for the desire of love, since this feeling is eternal and will never fade.

In the first and in the second line, the poetess expresses a point of view about the ways to love, and she thinks love should not be put under any condition. Indeed, the poetess’ “smile”, “look” and “way of speaking” are subjected to change and natural transformation; so, if her lover loves her because of one of this ephemeral characteristics, when this feature fades away, love disappears too. Not even the pity for the poetess’ suffering (represented by the tears) is a good reason to love, since continuous comfort might make one incapable of crying, and so love may end. The poetess concludes that love is eternal only when it is free of any condition, and when someone loves just for the joy implicit in loving.

The first line is divided into two parts by a comma. In the first part the sound “u” expresses a doubt, while the second part has a very fast rhythm since it is composed of monosyllabic words, which, together with the alliteration of “t” convey a sense of resolution. The repetition of the words “change” and “wrought” in lines 8 and 9 communicates the transience of physical characteristics, and the same meaning is conveyed by the alliteration of “l” in line 12 (“long”, “lose”, “love”). On the contrary, the repetition of the word “love” in the couplet is meant to focus the reader’s attention on love itself, as a pure feeling without boundaries. In addition, the alliteration of “o” creates a sense of vastness (the eternity of love).

The sonnet effectively conveys the poetess’ desire for love as a spiritual force.