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.
lies life unfinished work
Think your life was made for dreaming, nothing more,When God's work lies all unfinished at your door?
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.
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.
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.
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.
dwells lets proves puts sinews splendid strength strong
Who is the strong? Not he who puts to testHis sinews with the strong and proves the best;But he who dwells where weaklings congregate,And never lets his splendid strength abate.
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.
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?
cowards men sin
To sin by silence, when we should protest,Makes cowards out of men.