If Thou Must Love Me, Comprehension Level Questions and Answers

If Thou Must Love Me

Extract I

If thou must love me, let it be for nought…………a sense of pleasant ease on such a day

1.    What does the speaker mean by saying ‘let it be for nought’? How does the speaker want her lover to love her?

The poet asks her lover  not to love her for the sake of apparent love. She wants him to love her not superficially, but with a genuine, unconditional love.

2.    What are the things she does not want to be loved for?

She asks him not to love her for her smile or for her looks. She then tells him not to love her for the way she talks or for her pleasant voice. Shea asks him not to love her for the qualities which certainly gave him a sense of comfort on a particular day.

3.    What is her reason for asking her lover not to love her for those particular traits?

She knows that her appearance and good looks will fade with the passage of time. She rejects being loved for qualities that could fade in their appeal for him. She feels that if he loves her for only those attributes, his love for her would diminish, when her superficial qualities fade away.

4.    Give the meaning of :

a)    For a tick of thought: a particular way of thinking which may mislead a person.

b)    A sense of pleasant ease on such a day: qualities which gave the lover a sense of comfort on a particular day.

5.    What is meant by the literary device of cumulative listing? Give an example of such a device in the above extract.

Cumulative listing is a technique of listing similar ideas, to explain or add examples to a particular statement. Such a device is used for the sake of emphasis, when the main statement is simple.

In the first two lines of the poem, the speaker states that her partner must love her only for the sake of love, and for nothing else. In support of this statement, she goes to enumerate her physical characteristics-her smile, her looks and her gentle way of speaking.

Extract II

For these things…….may be unwrought so.

1.    What are ‘these things’ referred to in the above lines?

‘These things’ refers to her look, her way of speaking gently and her smile.

2.    What is meant by “ May be changed, or change for thee.”?

The qualities that the lover appreciated and admired may change as years pass by. There could be another possibility that his appreciation of those qualities could change. So, she is aware that the love, that is based on changeable things, cannot endure.

Why doesn’tqualities could change. So, she is aware that the love, that is based on changeable things, cannot endure.

3.    Why doesn’t the  speaker want to be affected by these changes?

She feels that if he loves her for only for those superficial qualities, his love for her would diminish, when her superficial qualities fade away.

4.    What is the theme of the poem?

Refer page no 123- Workbook.

5.    What is meant by “love , so wrought , may be unwrought so?”

If he loves the poet for her look, smile and gentle way of speaking, when these qualities disappear, his love for the poet may diminish.

Extract III

Thine own dear pity’s……thy love thereby!

1.    What is referred to by, ‘dear pity’? What is meant by, ‘wiping my cheeks dry’?

Dear pity means the pity the lover feels for the poet. 

The poet tells her lover not to love her out of pity he feels for her. She says this because she knows she “might forger to weep”  and since there will be no more tears to be wiped off from her cheeks; she may not be able to produce the same pity for her in her man. Then he would stop loving her.

2.    Who is the ‘creature’ referred to in the above lines? Why is it called so?

The ‘creature’ refers to the poetess herself. Here the poetess  has used the term ‘creature’ instead of using  the  word herself. By comparing herself with creature, she alluding to something similar to an animal(whimpering dog  or a flopping  baby bird) which instantly invokes human pity for  the ‘creature’.

3.    Suppose the creature forgets to weep what will be its effect on her lover?

She says that she might forget her pain and would not shed any tears, after enjoying the comfort of his company for a long time. She feels that this would not invoke in him any pity for her and she would lose his love for her.

4.    For whom is the word ‘Thy’ used in the above lines?

‘Thy’ refers to poetess’ lover.

5.    What is the trait, that the poet does not want to be loved for, in the given lines?

Her status which invokes pity in want the lover.

Extract IV

But love me for love’s sake…..love’s eternity.

1.    Why does poet want to be loved in a particular way?

She wants to be loved for ‘love’s sake’, so that she will always be loved, no matter what fades over time. She wants that his love for he should be eternal.

2.    What is meant by ‘through love’s eternity’?

The poet wants her lover’s love for her should be eternal, beyond all worldly pleasures. The love which is based on external appearances is not true love.  Love should be shared between people who genuinely care for each other. The poet has presented love as an eternal quality that we should value for its own sake.

3.    How has love been personified  in the above lines?

Love is personified in the poem, when the speaker  says: ‘Love’s sake’ and “Love’s eternity’. Love in the literal sense  is an abstract idea, therefore, it cannot have a time frame or a possession.

4.    How does the poem show the demand of equal status by a woman?

In the poem, the speaker, a woman, wants her lover not to love her for her superficial qualities. She wants him to love her not out of pity but for  what she is- a living, thinking human being. Thus, Elizabeth Browning questioned the idea of a woman not being equal to man and demanded the right of a woman to speak and to be heard.

5.    With reference to the poem, state how the poem is a sonnet.

The poem If thou must love me is a sonnet, i.e., a fourteen-line lyric poem with a formal rhyming scheme in iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme followed in the sonnet is abba/abba/cdc/dc(d/e).