| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| From “A Christmas Hymn” |
| | | Alfred Domett (1811–87) |
| | | | | New Style: 1875 |
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| TO murder one so young! | |
| To still that wonder-teeming tongue | |
| Ere half the fulness of its mellow’d glory | |
| Had flash’d in mild sheet-lightnings forth! | |
| Who knows, had that majestic Life grown hoary, | 5 |
| Long vers’d in all man’s weakness, woes and worth, | |
| What beams had pierced the clouds that veil this voyage of care! | |
| Not Zeus, nor Baal’s throne, | |
| Nor Osiris alone, | |
| But Doubt, or worse assurance of Despair, | 10 |
| Or Superstition’s brood that blends the tiger with the hare. | |
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| Who knows but we had caught | |
| Some hint from pure impassion’d Thought, | |
| How Matter’s links and Spirit’s, that still fly us, | |
| Can break and still leave Spirit free; | 15 |
| How Will can act o’ermaster’d by no bias; | |
| Why Good omnipotent lets Evil be; | |
| What balm heals beauteous Nature’s universal flaw; | |
| And how, below, above, | |
| It is Love, and only Love | 20 |
| Bids keen Sensation glut Destruction’s maw— | |
| Love rolls this groaning Sea of Life on pitiless rocks of Law! | |
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