Ella Wilcox
Ella Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcoxwas an American author and poet. Her best-known work was Poems of Passion. Her most enduring work was "Solitude", which contains the lines, "Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone". Her autobiography, The Worlds and I, was published in 1918, a year before her death...
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth5 November 1850
dreaming hours idly precious sit vanished
Why sit ye idly dreaming all the day,While the golden, precious hours flit away?See you not the day is waning, waning fast?That the morn's already vanished in the past?
against chain holds independence land mighty protest therefore
Therefore I do protest against the boastOf independence in this mighty land.Call no chain strong, which holds one rusted link.Call no land free, that holds one fettered slave.
pass square task whatever
Whatever the task that comes your way,Just take it as part of your luck.Look it right square in the eyes, and say,""This is MY task, I'll do it to-day"":Don't pass the buck.
labor side
Here, on this side of the grave,Here, should we labor and love.
dumb earth sins though
God! though all other sins on earth persist,Strike dumb the blatant, loud-mouthed atheist.
deal flatter fleeting full love please scarcely
We flatter those we scarcely know,We please the fleeting guest,And deal full many a thoughtless blowTo those who love us best.
We find what we look for in this world.
body human
Body and mind, and spirit, all combineTo make the Creature, human and divine.
lips seal silence
BE STILL: Be stiller yet; and listen. Set the screenOf silence at the portal of your will.Relax, and let the world go by unheard.And seal your lips with some all-sacred word.
delay gods impatient ready rises spirit wait
Be not impatient in delay,But wait as one who understands;When spirit rises and commands,The gods are ready to obey.
chain continued earth endless finite heaven left link love missing
Between the finite and the infiniteThe missing link of Love has left a void.Supply the link, and earth with Heaven will joinIn one continued chain of endless life.
burden curse dream hug laughing lie rise sheet sigh thousand until weeping year
What can be said in New Year rhymes,That's not been said a thousand times?The new years come, the old years go,We know we dream, we dream we know.We rise up laughing with the light,We lie down weeping with the night.We hug the world until it stings,We curse it then and sigh for wings.We live, we love, we woo, we wed,We wreathe our prides, we sheet our dead.We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,And that's the burden of a year.
above bells christmas faces fields hear lands loves places ringing sweet swinging vacant voices
When Christmas bells are swinging above the fields of snow, we hear sweet voices ringing from lands of long ago, and etched on vacant places are half-forgotten faces of friends we used to cherish, and loves we used to know.
life strong sweet
Life hurries pasttoo strong to stop;too sweet to loose.