If Thou Must Love Me Sonnet XIV Reference to the Context Class 9 & 10 ICSE

Answer a. The poet asks her lover not to love her for the sake of apparent love. She wants her lover to love her with genuine and unconditional affection.

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

Answer b.The poet does not want to be loved for her superficial qualities like smile and good looks and way of speaking and so on.

Question c. What is the reason for asking her lover not to love her for those particular traits?

Answer c. The poet feels that if he loves her for her superficial attributes then the love would diminish when her superficial qualities will fade away.

Question d. Give the meaning of: 1- For a trick of thought.2-A sense of pleasant ease on such a day.

Answer d.1: A particular way of thinking which may mislead a person.2: The poetess asks him not to love for the qualities which certainly give him a sense of comfort on a particular day.

2-“For these things in themselves, Beloved, may….. Maybe an unwrought so.”
Question a. What are these things referred to in the above lines? 

Answer a. The given extract ‘these things’ are referred to as the external qualities of the poet.

Question b. What is meant by main / be changed, or change for thee?

Answer b.The love for her by the lover would change with the change in the beauties of the poetess.

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

Answer c.The speaker does not want to be affected by these changes because the supervision attributes fade away with time.

Question d. What is the theme of the poem?

Answer d.The theme of the poem is unconditional love. She wants to be loved unconditionally without being loved for any superficial attributes by her lover because she knows that true love lasts long.

Question e. What is meant by love so got / maybe unwrought so?

Answer e.The poetess states that the love which she has obtained from her lover may be because of her artificial attributes. These attributes are superficial things that will one day decline from her face and body. Then the love which she has acquired will start to diminish. The love will become unwrought because her beauty will fade away.

3-“Neither love me for……. thy comfort long and lose the love thereby.”
Question a. What is referred to by dear pity? What is meant by wiping my cheeks dry?

Answer a. The poet tells her lover not to love her out of pity he feels for her. The clause “wiping my cheeks dry” means To wipe out the tears shedding from our eyes from her cheek.

Question b. Who is the creature referred to in the above lines? Why is it so called?

Answer b.The creature referred to in the above lines is the poet. By comparing herself to a creature, she is alluding to something similar to an animal which instantly invokes human compassion for itself.

Question c. Suppose the creatures for kids to be what will be its effects on her lover?

Answer c.If the creature forgets to weep then it would not invoke in him any pity for her and she would lose his love for her.

Question d. For whom is the word dye used in the above lines?

Answer d.The word “thy” is used for the lover of the poetess.

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

Answer e.The poet does not want her to be loved for pity.

4-“But love me for love’s shake that evermore thou mayst love on, true love eternity.”
Question a. Why does the poet want to be love in a particular way?

Answer a. The poet does not want to be loved on any superficial background like her beauties and out of compassion. She wants to be loved unconditionally throughout her life.

Question b. What is meant by true love eternity?

Answer b.She wants love for her eternal.

Question c. How has love been personified in the above lines?

Answer c.Love is personified in the poem when the speaker says love to shake and love eternity. love in the literal sense is an abstract Idea, therefore it cannot have a time frame or possession.

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

Answer d. The poem if thou must love me is a sonnet. It consists of 14 lines which are lyrical in nature and possesses a formal rhyming scheme in iambic pentameter. However, the material of the sonnet does not adhere to the Petrarchan convention where the problem is given in the octave part and the solution is present in the sestet part. In this poem, the problem overflows from the octave to the sestet part and a solution occurs in the last two lines. It can be stated that the sonnet is a hybrid of both Petrarchan and Shakespearean conventions. Regarding the rhyming pattern, it follows Petrarchan octet and sestet. But in the content experience structure of three quatrains and a couplet have been employed. Does on the basis of the above-given analysis, if thou must love me can be said a sonnet.