"That Is Love" (1890)
Song and Chorus
Words and Music by
Felix McGlennon, 18??-1943

[Sources: pp. 64-68 of "The Parlour Song Book";
and 144/047@Levy]

1.
Love, sweet love is the poet's theme,
Love, sweet love is the poet's dream;
What is love of which they sing?
Only a phantom unreal thing!
'Tis but the dalliance, the dalliance of youth and maid,
'Tis but the passion, the passion of vows that fade;
'Tis not the Heaven, the heaven implanted glow
That true hearts call love, ah no! an no!

REFRAIN
See a moth gazing on her baby boy,
With ecstatic eyes and heart that fill with joy;
He to her is purest gold without alloy,
For him how she pray'd to Heav'n above,
How she guides his footsteps thro' the vale of strife,
Watches o'er his bedside when infection rife,
Risking for her baby boy her health, her life,
That is love, that is love!

2.
Love, sweet love, how the word's misplaced,
Love, sweet love how the theme's disgraced,
What is a fond lover's ardent glance?
What is a maiden's shy advance?
What is the pressure, the pressure of am'rous lips?
What is the pressure, the pressure of finger tips?
Only the pleasure, the joys of passing day,
'Tis not the love that will live for aye!

REFRAIN
See a father standing at his cottage door,
Watching baby in the gutter rolling o'er;
Laughing at his merry pranks, but hark, a roar!
Help, oh help him gracious Heav'n above!
Dashing down the road there comes a maiden'd horse,
Out the father rushes with resistless force,
Saves the child, but he lies there a mangled corpse.
That is love, that is love!

3.
Oh! the love of a faithful friend,
True, true love that will never end;
Where can such friendship be found on earth?
In true hearts above it findeth birth,
Friends, meet with friends, and they vow, they vow to cling,
Often, alas! does their love, their love take wing;
Seldom, alas! can such faithful friendship be,
As that of two comrades who went to sea.

REFRAIN
When the squall had struck the ship, and she was lost,
Clinging to a plank the chums were tempest tost;
But the plank was waterlogg'd, and sank almost,
One of them must meet his God above.
One of them said: "Jack this plank will not hold two,"
You've a wife and children, so I'll die for you,
Goodbye Jack"! he leaves the plank and sinks from view.
That is love, that is love!

4.
Love, sweet love, not the passion's glow,
That some call love on this earth below,
No, but the pure, the undying love,
The sacred affection from above,
'Tis not the love, not the love for a beauteous face,
'Tis not the love that time's raveges soon will chase,
'Tis not the love born in brightly sparkling eyes,
Ah no, 'tis the love sent from Paradise.

REFRAIN
See a husband parting from a darling wife,
Bearing arms for freedom and the battle's strife;
Gazing on her partrait where the foes are rife,
Treasuring a lock of hair, a glove.
See the wife from whom the husband had to part,
News has come, he's fallen, how the tear drops start!
How she droops and then dies of a broken heart!
That is love, that is love!