IF THOU MUST LOVE ME

The title creates curiosity about the conditions to know about somebody. It is not a coincidence that the title is repeated in the first line of the sonnet. Thus reinforcing the same curiosity. So, it implies the sonnet is part of a collection. Indeed all the sonnet is a lyrical investigation about the conditions of love on the part of the speaking voice. Not only does the first line repeat the concept of the title, but puts the message itself setting in a better focus, inviting the lover to love just for love.

Since the second line the exclusive thought about love (signalled by the word "only", at the centre of the line) is remarked and the expression "for love's sake" became the condition justifying the whole sonnet. All the remaining sonnet part provides the argumentations for that choice.

The message which is immediately clear even to the common reader is reinforced by the direct invitation of the speaker to her beloved not to use mechanical words like the once covering lines from three to six, expressed in direct speech. The speaking voice seems to tell her interlocutor that in her opinion love is not such when you love somebody for "her smile - her look - her way of speaking gently". Love implies something different going beyond attitude. Love does not live in a simply "sense of pleasant ease". The third quatrain introduces the problem of love sorrow. It comes out that you don't have to love somebody only if is weeping because as a result probably you will loose this love. The last but not least couplet reports the problem dealt in whole sonnet in a very synthetical way. If you love somebody only for love's sake your love will be eternal, a never ending story.

Taking into consideration the language used, an intelligent reader will immediately understand that the semantic field of love approaching surrounds the whole poem. For example the reader can find in the smiling, looking, speaking etc etc.

A closer analysis of the phonological level will certainly unveil new meanings. The use of long vowel sounds recurring in whole poem seems to create an idea of eternity. You can find the repetition of "o" and "u" sounds. Also at line ten there's an alliterative use of the consonant sound w reinforcing the idea of who is crying.