YOU ask me why I love her,
As I love nought on earth?
Why I'll put none above her
For sorrow or for mirth?
Though there be others fairer;
In spirit, richer, rarer;
With none will I compare her,
Who is to me all worth!
I love her for her beauty,
Her force, her fire, her youth,
For kisses cold as duty
Bespeak not love, but ruth.
I love her for the treasure
Of all the rapturous pleasure
Her love gives without measure
Of passion and of truth!
I love her firm possession
Of instincts fair and true;
Her hatred of oppression
And all the wrong men do;
Her fiery, unflawed purity,
Her spirit's proud security,
Defying all futurity,
And fate and fortune too.
And O, my love, I love you
For where words faint and fall
Something in you above you,
Some mystery magical;
Some spell that's past concealing,
Some influence past revealing,
Some deeper depth than feeling
And life and death and all!