E-Lecture - Stanza 3 (lines 15–19)

This passage shows the speaker communicating to his lover that they have proceeded from their former “childish” pleasures to this moment, where their souls have finally awakened; something “miraculous” has happened, because the speaker feels the sort of love that Paul the Apostle claimed would only be encountered in heaven.

If our two loves be one, or, thou and I Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.

Stanza 3 (lines 20-21)

While the version found in Songs and Sonnets includes this passage as the last two lines, other manuscripts and a later volume of poetry give the last lines as, “If our two loves be one, both thou and I/Love just alike in all, none of these loves can die”.

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