“If Thou Must Love Me, Let It Be For Nought” is an 1850 sonnet by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, in which a speaker begs her beloved to orient their feelings of love around permanent rather than fleeting features. Dismissing a series of attributes, including her own appearance and personality, the speaker argues that a love based upon impermanences will itself be inevitably impermanent. Eventually, she asks her listener to love for the sake of love itself in order to ensure a lasting relationship. Originally published in the book Sonnets from the Portuguese, the work was first written for Browning's husband, fellow poet Robert Browning. However, the poem itself does not explicitly identify the speaker or the listener.
The work is a typical Italian sonnet, a form often used for addressing themes of love. Written in iambic pentameter, the poem's first eight lines use an ABBA rhyme scheme before switching to a CDCDCD rhyme scheme in the final sestet. It advances its argument in sharp, concise language that emphasizes the speaker's seriousness and urgency despite the tenderness she voices towards the addressee.
