| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| Life Is Love |
| | | William Johnson Fox (1786–1864) |
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| THE FAIR varieties of earth, | |
| The heavens serene and blue above, | |
| The rippling smile of mighty seas— | |
| What is the charm of all, but love? | |
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| By love they minister to thought, | 5 |
| Love makes them breathe the poet’s song; | |
| When their Creator best is prais’d, | |
| ’T is love inspires the adoring throng. | |
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| Knowledge, and power, and will supreme, | |
| Are but celestial tyranny, | 10 |
| Till they are consecrate by love, | |
| The essence of divinity. | |
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| For love is strength, and faith, and hope; | |
| It crowns with bliss our mortal state; | |
| And, glancing far beyond the grave, | 15 |
| Foresees a life of endless date. | |
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| That life is love; and all of life | |
| Time or eternity can prove; | |
| Both men and angels, worms and gods. | |
| Exist in universal love. | 20 |
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