Life without love! -- Ah, what a wail goes up
From this poor world of manifold distress,--
What thousands drink the dregs of bitterness,
Nor find one drop of honey in the cup.

Life without love! -- O poverty, and shame,
O vice, O drink, O selishness and care,
O harpies at each banquet of despair,
Setting how many wretched homes aflame!

Life without love! -- Ye virgin souls that pine
For some one's love, some cold unconscious one,
Pale patient plants that never see the sun,--
When will his long-desired glory shine?

Life without love! -- Ye that have miss'd your mates,
Embitter'd hearts, whom Marriage blights unblest,--
O nightly daily worry and unrest,
Domestic storms, and never-dying hates!

Life without love! -- Who long can live this life,
Where patience only hardens by her smile,
Where peace is nothing but perpetual guile,
And hope's best hope is for a truce of strife?

Life without love! -- This is but living death,
As love with life were double life to live:
Kind Heaven,-- in grace some true deliverance give,
And quicken Life with Love's delicious breath!