Sonnet from Monna Innominata
Christina Rossetti
I loved you first: but afterwards your love
Outsoared mine, sang such a loftier song
As drowned the friendly cooings of my dove.
Which owes the other most? my love was long,
And yours one moment seemed to wax more strong;
I loved I guessed at you, you construed me
And loved me for what might or might not be-
Nay, weights and measures do us both wrong.
For verily love knows not ‘mine’ or ‘thine;’
With separate ‘I’ and ‘thou’ free love has done,
For one is both and both are one in love;
Rich love knows nought of ‘thine that is not mine;’
Both have the strength and the length thereof,
Both of us, of the love that makes us one.