Poems Of Experience: “Why, even Death stands still and waits an hour for such a will.”

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, Poems Of Experience, 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: 9781783945825

Book preview

Poems of Experience 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 Empty Bowl

Keep Going

A Prayer

The London 'Bobby'

Read at the Benefit of Clara Morris

Two Ghosts

Woman

Battle Hymn of the Women

Memories

See?

The Purpose

The White Man

A Moorish Maid

Lincoln

I know not

Interlude

Resurrection

The Voices of the City

If Christ Came Questioning

England, Awake!

Be not attached

An Episode

The Voice of the Voiceless

Time's Defeat

The Hymn of the Republic

The Radiant Christ

At Bay

The Birth of Jealousy

Summer's Farewell

The Goal

Christ Crucified

The Trip to Mars

Fiction and Fact

Progress

How the White Rose Came

I look to Science

Appreciation

The Awakening

Most Blest is He

Nirvana

Life

Two Men

Only Be Still

Pardoned Out

The Tides

Progression

Acquaintance

Attainment

The Tower-Room

Father

The New Hawaiian Girl

Ella Wheeler Wilcox – A Short Biography

Ella Wheeler Wilcox – A Concise Bibliography

THE EMPTY BOWL

I held the golden vessel of my soul

And prayed that God would fill it from on high.

Day after day the importuning cry

Grew stronger, grew, a heaven-accusing dole

Because no sacred waters laved my bowl.

'So full the fountain, Lord, wouldst Thou deny

The little needed for a soul's supply?

I ask but this small portion of Thy whole.'

Then from the vast invisible Somewhere,

A voice, as one love-authorised by Him,

Spake, and the tumult of my heart was stilled.

'Who wants the waters must the bowl prepare;

Pour out the self, that chokes it to the brim,

But emptied vessels, from the source are filled.'

KEEP GOING

Is the goal distant, and troubled the road,

And the way long?

And heavy your load?

Then gird up your courage, and say 'I am strong,'

And keep going.

Is the work weary, and endless the grind

And petty the pay?

Then brace up your mind

And say 'Something better is coming my way,'

And keep doing.

Is the drink bitter life pours in your cup

Is the taste gall?

Then smile and look up

And say 'God is with me whatever befall,'

And keep trusting.

Is the heart heavy with hope long deferred,

And with prayers that seem vain?

Keep saying the word

And that which you strive for you yet shall attain.

Keep praying.

A PRAYER

Just as I shape the purport of my thought,

Lord of the Universe, shape Thou my lot.

Let each ill thought that in my heart may be,

Mould circumstance and bring ill luck to me.

Until I weed the garden of my mind

From all that is unworthy and unkind,

Am I not master of my mind, dear Lord?

Then as I THINK, so must be my reward.

Who sows in weakness, cannot reap in strength,

That which we plant, we gather in at length.

Great God of Justice, be Thou just to me,

And as my thoughts, so let my future be.

THE LONDON 'BOBBY'

A TRIBUTE TO THE POLICEMEN OF ENGLAND'S CAPITAL

Here in my cosy corner,

Before a blazing log,

I'm thinking of cold