Love for love's sake

If thou must love me... (Sonnet 14)
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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, Belovèd, 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 mayst love on, through love's eternity.

In some ways, this is kind of on the line of Shakespeare's
...Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken.

I think there's truth in that-- true love is constant, bears all things, endures all things.

However, as much as I might like to believe it, I'm not sure that "love for love's sake" is possible...or even desirable. C.S. Lewis writes, "Love ceases to be a demon only when it ceases to be a god." Beyond that, love generally flows from affection...and affection is usually sparked by "a trick of thought," a "way of speaking gently," etc. I guess the problem comes from building a relationship upon those things...that may change. The love must go deeper than that. But love for love's sake? I'm just not sure.