ELECTRIC EARL'S MUSIC ARCHIVE: LYRICS (FOR CHORD CHANGES, CLICK HERE)

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IF THOU MUST LOVE ME (fast version)

WORDS & MUSIC:   Earl P. Reinhalter


        CHORUS:  if thou must love me,
                 if thou must love me,
                 if thou must love me,
                 just love me.

                 (repeat chorus)

             I.  don't say you love me
                 for my smile.
                 I can't be smiling
                 all the while.
                 don't say you love me
                 for my eyes.
                 when I'm asleep,
                 your love will fly.

                 (repeat chorus)

            II.  don't say you love
                 my train of thought.
                 what if the rail
                 should come unwrought?
                 don't say my touch
                 is your desire.
                 when I'm away,
                 where goes the fire?
                 oh--------

           III.  don't say
                 you want to mother me.
                 when I grow up,
                 you will flee.
                 don't say
                 you need me to lean on.
                 you will leave me
                 when you're strong.

                 (repeat chorus twice)

        ENDING:  love me, love me, love me, love me,
                 love me, love me, love me, love me,
                 love me, love me, love me, love me,
                 love me.

© Copyright 1985 Earl P. Reinhalter.   All Rights Reserved.


The title and basic concept are from the poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning:

                        IF THOU MUST LOVE ME

              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. Neither love me for
              Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry,--
              A creature might forget to weep, who bore
              Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!
              But love me for love's sake, that evermore
              Thou mayest love on, through love's eternity.

 





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