| Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891. | | | | Of Such As I Have | | By Sarah (Channing) Woolsey (“Susan Coolidge”) (1835–1905) |
| | | LOVE me for what I am, Love. Not for sake | |
| Of some imagined thing which I might be, | |
| Some brightness or some goodness not in me, | |
| Born of your hope, as dawn to eyes that wake | |
| Imagined morns before the morning break. | 5 |
| If I, to please you (whom I fain would please), | |
| Reset myself like new key to old tune, | |
| Chained thought, remodelled action, very soon | |
| My hand would slip from yours, and by degrees | |
| The loving, faulty friend, so close to-day, | 10 |
| Would vanish, and another take her place,— | |
| A stranger with a stranger’s scrutinies, | |
| A new regard, an unfamiliar face. | |
| Love me for what I am, then, if you may; | |
| But, if you cannot,—love me either way. | 15 | | | |
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