Elizabeth Barrett Browning
You were made perfectly to be loved - and surely I have loved you, in the idea of you, my whole life long.
I love you, not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.
If thou must love me, let it be for nought, except for love's sake only. Do not say, I love her for her smile, her look, her way of speaking gently, for a trick of thought that falls in well with mine, and, certes, brought a sense of pleasant ease on such a day. For these things in themselves, beloved, may be changed, or change for thee, and love so wrought, may be unwrought so.
Who so loves believes the impossible.
I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears of all my life.
How do I love thee ? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach.