Love vs Sentimentality

"Love Minus Zero / No Limit"

 

My love she speaks like silence

Without ideals or violence

She doesn't have to say she's faithful

Yet she's true, like ice, like fire

 

People carry roses

And make promises by the hours

My love she laughs like the flowers

Valentines can't buy her

 

In the dime stores and bus stations

People talk of situations

Read books, repeat quotations

Draw conclusions on the wall

 

Some speak of the future

My love she speaks softly

She knows there's no success like failure

And that failure's no success at all

 

The cloak and dagger dangles

Madams light the candles

In ceremonies of the horsemen

Even a pawn must hold a grudge

 

Statues made of match-sticks

Crumble into one another

My love winks, she does not bother

She knows too much to argue or to judge

 

The bridge at midnight trembles

The country doctor rambles

Bankers' nieces seek perfection

Expecting all the gifts that wise men bring

 

The wind howls like a hammer

The night blows rainy

My love she's like some raven

At my window with a broken wing 

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I've long held an antipathy to what I conceive to be sentimentality.  It struck me as a largely self-serving emotional gesture with no substance.  It seems to be only feelings.  

Before I dig myself in too deeply, I realize that feelings are there in love too.

Help me out here.  How to define love.  Obviously it wishes the best for the loved person.  Sometimes it costs.  Its sacrificial sometimes.  

I'm sure you commenters will have something useful to say.  Its always a treat to read what you say.