Christina Rossetti. If love is not
If love is not worth loving, then life is not worth living, Nor aught is worth remembering but well forgot; For store is not worth storing and gifts are not worth giving, If love is not; And idly cold is deathcold, and lifeheat idly hot, And vain is any offering and vainer our receiving, And vanity of vanities is all our lot. Better than life s heaving heart is death s heart unheaving, Better than the opening leaves are the leaves that rot, For there is nothing left worth achieving or retrieving, If love is not.
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