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.
love sorrows souls waters
Our souls should be vessels receivingThe waters of love for relievingThe sorrows of men.
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.
learn men
Live to learn, and learn to liveIf you want to give men knowledgeYou must get, ere you give.
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
adversity dead earth easy flows goes heart life man praises shines smile smiles test worth
It is easy enough to be pleasant, When life flows by like a song. But the man worth while is the one who can smile, when everything goes dead wrong. For the test of the heart is troubled, And it always comes with the years. And the smiles that is worth the praises of earth is the smile that shines through tears.
grace lent looking menial
Such menial duties; but her wayOf looking at them lent a graceTo things the world deemed commonplace.
followers looks taken tempting turns
Who is the wise? Not he who from the startWith Wisdom's followers has taken part;But he who looks in Folly's tempting eyes,And turns away, perceiving her disguise.
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.
love passionate
Oh! I know this truth, if I know no other,That passionate Love is Pain's own mother.
cannot maladies minor mortal talk worn
Talk health. The dreary, never-changing taleOf mortal maladies is worn and stale.You cannot charm, or interest, or pleaseBy harping on that minor chord, disease.
path sad talk wholly
Talk happiness. The world is sad enoughWithout your woes. No path is wholly rough.
earth kinds lift people
The two kinds of people on earth that I meanAre the people who lift and the people who lean.