C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Florence Earle Coates (1850–1927)

IF love were not, the wilding rose

Would in its leafy heart inclose

No chalice of perfume.

By mossy bank in glen or grot,

No bird would build, if love were not,

No flower complacent bloom.

The sunset clouds would lose their dyes,

The light would fade from beauty’s eyes,

The stars their fires consume.

And something missed from hall and cot

Would leave the world, if love were not,

A wilderness of gloom.