Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

William Johnson Fox 1786–1864

Life Is Love

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?

By love they minister to thought,

Love makes them breathe the poet’s song;

When their Creator best is prais’d,

’T is love inspires the adoring throng.

Knowledge, and power, and will supreme,

Are but celestial tyranny,

Till they are consecrate by love,

The essence of divinity.

For love is strength, and faith, and hope;

It crowns with bliss our mortal state;

And, glancing far beyond the grave,

Foresees a life of endless date.

That life is love; and all of life

Time or eternity can prove;

Both men and angels, worms and gods.

Exist in universal love.