Love knows not of
Death nor calculus above.²
She can Love, and she can Die—and
Has a Heart dares hope to prove how
Much less strong is death than Love.³
If thou must love me—let it be for nought except
For Love’s Sake only: love me for love’s sake, that
Evermore thou mayst love on, through love’s Eternity.⁴
A lighter sin or lesser error might change through
Hope or fear divine—but there is no fear, and hell
Has no terror, to change or alter a Love like mine.⁵
Love is not Love which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove: O, no! It is an
Ever-Fixèd mark, that looks on Tempests and is never
Shaken—that Bears it out even to the edge of Doom!⁶
Life has given love a guarantee to
Last through Forever and Another Day.⁷
Love is anterior to life—Posterior to death—
Initial of Creation—and the exponent of Earth.⁸
There is no thing that Lasts—not one—when
We have turned to Clay, but this: you Love me—
All the rest fades with the world away.⁹
Whatever happens, those who have learned to
Love one another have made their way to
The Lasting World, and will not leave—
Whatever happens.¹⁰
¹ Audre Lorde, For Each of You
² Sylvia Plath, Love is a Parallax
³ Richard Crashaw, A Hymn to the Name and Honour of the Admirable Saint Teresa
⁴ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese 14
⁵ Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Ad Finem
⁶ William Shakespeare, Sonnet CXVI
⁷ Stevie Wonder, As
⁸ Emily Dickinson, Love is Anterior to Life
⁹ John Bennett, Her Answer
¹⁰ Wendell Berry, Whatever Happens