The Kingdom Of Love: "There is no language that love does not speak"

By Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Born on November 5th 1850 in Johnstown, Wisconsin, Ella Wheeler was the youngest of four children. She began to write as a child and by the time she graduated was already well known as a poet throughout Wisconsin. Regarded more as a popular poet than a literary poet her most famous work ‘Solitude’ reflects on a train journey she made where giving comfort to a distressed fellow traveller she wrote how the others grief imposed itself for a time on her ‘Laugh and the world laughs with you, Weep and you weep alone’. It was published in 1883 and was immensely popular. The following year, 1884, she married Robert Wilcox. They lived for a time in New York before moving to Connecticut. Their only child, a son, died shortly after birth. Here we publish one of her many poetry books, The Kingdom Of Love, that so endeared her to her audience. Ella died of breast cancer on October 30th, 1919.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Copyright Group
• Release date: Nov 12, 2013
• ISBN: 9781783945917

Book preview

The Kingdom of Love by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Poetry is a fascinating use of language.  With almost a million words at its command it is not surprising that these Isles have produced some of the most beautiful, moving and descriptive verse through the centuries.  In this series we look at the world through the eyes and minds of our most gifted poets to bring you a unique poetic guide to their lives.  

Born on November 5th 1850 in Johnstown, Wisconsin, Ella Wheeler was the youngest of four children.  She began to write as a child and by the time she graduated was already well known as a poet throughout Wisconsin.

Regarded more as a popular poet than a literary poet her most famous work ‘Solitude’ reflects on a train journey she made where giving comfort to a distressed fellow traveller she wrote how the others grief imposed itself for a time on her ‘Laugh and the world laughs with you, Weep and you weep alone’. It was published in 1883 and was immensely popular.

The following year, 1884, she married Robert Wilcox.  They lived for a time in New York before moving to Connecticut.  Their only child, a son, died shortly after birth.  It was around this time they developed an interest in spiritualism which for Ella would develop further into an interest in the occult.  In later years this and works on positive thinking would occupy much of her writing.

On Robert’s death in 1916 she spent months waiting for word from him from ‘the other side’ which never came. 

In 1918 she published her autobiography The Worlds And I.

Ella died of cancer on October 30th, 1919.

Index Of Poems

The Kingdom Of Love

Meg's Curse

Solitude

The Gossips

Platonic

Grandpa's Christmas

After The Engagement

A Holiday

False

Two Sinners

The Phantom Ball

Words And Thoughts

Wanted - A Little Girl

The Suicide

Now I Lay Me

The Messenger

A Servian Legend

Peek-A-Boo

The Falling Of Thrones

Her Last Letter

The Princess's Finger-Nail

A Baby In The House

The Foolish Elm

Robin's Mistake

New Year Resolve

What We Want

Breaking The Day In Two

The Rape Of The Mist

The Two Glasses

The Maniac

What Is Flirtation?

Husband And Wife

How Does Love Speak?

Reincarnation

As You Go Through Life

How Salvator Won

The Watcher

How Will It Be?

Memory's River

Love's Way

A Man's Last Love

The Lady And The Dame

Confession

A Married Coquette

Forbidden Speech

The Summer Girl

The Ghost

The Signboard

A Man's Repentance

Aristarchus

Dell And I

About May

Vanity Fair

The Giddy Girl

A Girl's Autumn Reverie

His Youth

Under The Sheet

A Pin

The Coming Man

Ella Wheeler Wilcox – A Short Biography

Ella Wheeler Wilcox – A Concise Bibliography

THE KINGDOM OF LOVE

In the dawn of the day when the sea and the earth

Reflected the sunrise above,

I set forth with a heart full of courage and mirth

To seek for the Kingdom of Love.

I asked of a Poet I met on the way

Which cross-road would lead me aright;

And he said "Follow me, and ere long you shall see

Its glittering turrets of light."

And soon in the distance a city shone fair.

Look yonder, he said; How it gleams!

But alas! for the hopes that were doomed to despair,

It was only the Kingdom of Dreams.

Then the next man I asked was a gay Cavalier,

And he said: Follow me, follow me;

And with laughter and song we went speeding along

By the shores of Life's beautiful sea.

Then we came to a valley more tropical far

Than the wonderful vale of Cashmere,

And I saw from a bower a face like a flower

Smile out on the gay Cavalier;

And he said: "We have come to humanity's goal:

Here love and delight are intense."

But alas and alas! for the hopes of my soul

It was only the Kingdom of Sense.

As I journeyed more slowly I met on the road

A coach with retainers behind;

And they said: "Follow me, for our Lady's abode

Belongs in that realm, you will find."

'Twas a grand dame of fashion, a newly-made bride,

I followed, encouraged and bold;

But my hopes died away like the last gleams of day,

For we came to the Kingdom of Gold.

At the door of a cottage I asked a fair maid.

I have heard of that realm, she replied;

"But my feet never roam from the 'Kingdom of Home,'

So I know not the way," and she sighed.

I looked on the cottage; how restful it seemed!

And the maid was as fair as a dove.

Great light glorified my soul as I cried:

Why, Home is the 'Kingdom of Love'!

MEG'S CURSE

The sun rode high in a cloudless sky

Of a perfect summer morn.

She stood and gazed out into the street,

And wondered why she was born.

On the topmost branch of a maple-tree

That close by the window grew,

A robin called to his mate enthralled:

I love but you, but you, but you.

A soft look came in her hardened face

She had not wept for years;

But the robin's trill, as some sounds will,

Jarred open the door of tears.

She thought of the old home far away;

She heard the whr-r-r of the mill;

She heard the turtle's wild, sweet call,

And the wail of the whip-poor-will, whip-poor-will, whip-poor-will.

She saw again that dusty road

Whence he came riding down;

She smelled once more the flower she wore

In the breast of her simple gown.

Out on the new-mown meadow she heard

Two blue-jays quarrel and fret,

And the warning cry of a Phoebe bird

More wet, more wet, more wet.

With a blithe Hello to the men below

Who were spreading the new-mown hay,

The rider drew rein at her window-pane

How it all came back to-day!

How young she was, and how fair she was;

What innocence crowned her brow!

The future seemed fair, for Love was there

And now, and now, and now.

In a dingy glass on the wall near by

She gazed on her faded face.

"Well, Meg, I declare, what a beauty you are!

She sneered, "What an angel of grace!

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

What a thing of beauty and grace!"

She reached out her arms with a moaning sob:

"Oh, if