Classic Poem

Love is what lacks then: but what does it mean to you?
Where did you hear of it, feel it, or see?
What has the truth, or the good of it been to you?
How love some other, yet nohow love me?

If there were any conspicuous fault in me,
Any defect it were torture to bear,
Low-lying levels, too deep to exalt, in me,
Dread possibilities in me to fear:

If I were ugly or old or untractable,
Mean in my methods or low in my views:
If I were dull or unpleasant: in fact able
Neither to please, nor elate, nor amuse:—

That makes you angry, impatient; we'll take it, then,
I am a man that to know 's to esteem:
That's the admission you make to me: make it then:
Well why not love me? what's love but a dream?

Only of course in the sense you bestow on it:
I have a meaning for love, that is plain:
Further than passion, and longing, and so on, it
Means to me liking and liking again:

Liking, and liking, and liking—that's plain enough;—
Something depending on qualities then?
Yes: for they give you both pleasure and pain enough,
Qualities common in women and men.

Still not a doubt that, the love being brought about,
Liking made love, there is more that will come:
All the good qualities ever yet thought about:—
Yes, they fall short of that excellent sum.

Like a man: like him: and let there be more of it,
That which he is he'll be liked for: at last
Love in a minute will flash—I am sure of it—
Whether the wedding be future or past.

You who consider it quite immaterial
Whether the person is worthy or not:
You who are looking for something ethereal,
Something celestial, transcending our lot:

You to whom every excellent quality
Means but a cypher: who hope to behold
Love at a burst in his mighty totality
Change all the grey of the world into gold:

You dream a priceless love: I feel a penny one:
My reason plods, while your fancy can range:—
Therefore, I ask, since you'll never love any one,
Why should you not marry me for a change?