YOU ask me why I love her, <br />As I love nought on earth? <br />Why I'll put none above her <br />For sorrow or for mirth? <br />Though there be others fairer; <br />In spirit, richer, rarer; <br />With none will I compare her, <br />Who is to me all worth! <br />I love her for her beauty, <br />Her force, her fire, her youth, <br />For kisses cold as duty <br />Bespeak not love, but ruth. <br />I love her for the treasure <br />Of all the rapturous pleasure <br />Her love gives without measure <br />Of passion and of truth! <br />I love her firm possession <br />Of instincts fair and true; <br />Her hatred of oppression <br />And all the wrong men do; <br />Her fiery, unflawed purity, <br />Her spirit's proud security, <br />Defying all futurity, <br />And fate and fortune too. <br />And O, my love, I love you <br />For where words faint and fall <br />Something in you above you, <br />Some mystery magical; <br />Some spell that's past concealing, <br />Some influence past revealing, <br />Some deeper depth than feeling <br />And life and death and all!<br /><br />Francis William Lauderdale Adams<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/why-he-loves-her/
