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
life strong sweet
Life hurries pasttoo strong to stop;too sweet to loose.
attainment direction hinder seeking skill willing work
If you are seeking health, wealth, usefulness, skill in any direction, there is nothing and no one who can hinder your attainment of the coveted boon, if you are willing to work and wait.
lies life unfinished work
Think your life was made for dreaming, nothing more,When God's work lies all unfinished at your door?
helps man succeed
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,But no man can help you die.
borrow earth laugh laughs sad trouble weep
Laugh and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone; For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth, But has trouble enough of its own
dumb earth sins though
God! though all other sins on earth persist,Strike dumb the blatant, loud-mouthed atheist.
learn men
Live to learn, and learn to liveIf you want to give men knowledgeYou must get, ere you give.
learn love unwritten
Look in; and learn the wrong, and right,From your own soul's unwritten laws.And when you question, or demur,Let Love be your Interpreter.
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.
ardent best less lived ripe score souls three
Oh! what are years? A ripe three score and tenHold often less of life, in its best sense,Than just a twelvemonth lived by other men,Whose high-strung souls are ardent and intense.
cruel ease help pain salt sweet tears
If I could only weep,I think sweet help with my salt tears would come,To ease the cruel pain that is so dumb,And will not let me sleep.
alight along bears bosom church float lamp love million pointing soul though thousand
The world has a thousand creeds, and never a one have I;Not a church of my own, though a million spires are pointing the way on high.But I float on the bosom of faith, that bears me along like a river;And the lamp of my soul is alight with love for life, and the world, and the Giver.
gifts lies pleasure taking
For here lies the pleasure of living:In taking God's bounties, and givingThe gifts back again.
breaks earth endless goes heart learns life rise sad sun
This is the way of it, sad earth over,The heart that breaks is the heart of the lover,And the other learns to forget.For what is the use of endless sorrow?Though the sun goes down, it will rise to-morrow;And life is not over yet.