''IF THOU MUST LOVE ME, LET IT BE FOR NOUGHT'' By Elizabeth Browning

 

 

Considering the title the reader may expect the poem to pose a condition in loving. Such expectation is suggested by the words "me" and "must". So the reader may be interested in discovering the particular condition, which is reinforced by the repetition of the title in the first line (that also means that the poem is part of a collection). The whole sonnet is a lyrical investigation about the condition of love on the part of the speaker.
The sonnet follows the Elizabethan structure, consisting of 14 lines arranged into three quatrains and a rhyming couplet.
In the first quatrain the speaking voice invites her lover to love her just for love's sake, not for her actions and behaviour. So the first quatrain has the function to introduce the situation.
In the second quatrain it is explained why the poetess want such way of loving. Indeed things like "smile", "look", "way of speaking" might change in time, so love based on them could change, could last.
In the third quatrain the poetess invites the lover not to love her for his pity's wiping her cheeks, because every creature could forget to weep, and losing their love, as a result.
In the couplet the speaking voice says that her lover has to love her for love's sake, to make their love eternal. So the couplet gives a possible solution of the problem posed in the whole sonnet.
A theme of the sonnet is the poetess' exclusive thought about love, suggest by words like "only", "except", "for love's sake". She wants an eternal love, love for "love's sake", not based on appereance. This aspect of eternity and vastity is undrlined by the enjambment between the lines 13-14 and by the long vowel sound in words like "mine", "love", "be", "look".