Poems

Poems List

Explore poems from our collection

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

My Friend

My Friend

When first I looked upon the face of Pain
I shrank repelled, as one shrinks from a foe
Who stands with dagger poised, as for a blow.
I wa…

424
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

My Home

My Home

This is the place that I love the best,
A little brown house, like a ground-bird's nest,
Hid among grasses, and vines, and trees,
Summer re…

374
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Mother's Kisses

Mother's Kisses

Baby was playing and down he fell, down he fell, down he fell,
Mama will kiss him and make him well,
Oh! what a miracle this is!
Ba…

426
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Music In The Flat

Music In The Flat

When Tom and I were married, we took a little flat;
I had a taste for singing and playing and all that.
And Tom, who loved to hear me, …

367
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Mockery

Mockery


Why do we grudge our sweets so to the living
Who, God knows, find at best too much of gall,
And then with generous, open hands kneel, givin…

301
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Moon And Sea

Moon And Sea

You are the moon, dear love, and I the sea:
The tide of hope swells high within my breast,
And hides the rough dark rocks of life’s unrest <…

364
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Mesalliance

Mesalliance


I am troubled to-night with a curious pain;
It is not of the flesh, it is not of the brain,
Nor yet of a heart that is breaking:

441
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Memory's Mansion

Memory's Mansion

In Memory's Mansion are wonderful rooms,
And I wander about them at will;
And I pause at the casements, where boxes of blooms
Are …

499
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Master And Servant

Master And Servant

The devil to Bacchus said, one day,
In a scowling, growling, petulant way,
As he came from earth to hell:
'There's a soul above …

409
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Love's Language

Love's Language

How does Love speak?

In the faint flush upon the tell-tale cheek,

And in the pallor that succeeds it; by

The quiv…

525
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Love Song

Love Song

Once in the world’s first prime,
When nothing lived or stirred,

Nothing but new-born Time,
Nor was there even a bird –
The Si…

481
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Love Will Wane

Love Will Wane

When your love begins to wane,
Spare me from the cruel pain
Of all speech that tells me so Spare
me words, for I shall know,
<…

466
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Lost

Lost


You left me with the autumn time;
When the winter stripped the forest bare,
Then dressed it in his spotless rime;

When frosts were…

459
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Love is Enough

Love is Enough

Love is enough. Let us not ask for gold.
Wealth breeds false aims, and pride and selfishness;
In those serene, Arcadian days of old

406
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Listen!

Listen!


Whoever you are as you read this,
Whatever your trouble or grief,

I want you to know and to heed this:
The day draweth near wit…

372
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Little Queen

Little Queen

Do you remember the name I wore –
The old pet-name of Little Queen –
In the dear, dead days that are no more,
The happiest days of our…

434
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Life's Scars

Life's Scars

They say the world is round, and yet
I often think it square,
So many little hurts we get
From corners here and there.
But one g…

631
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Lines from

Lines from

I'd rather have my verses win
A place in common people's hearts,
Who, toiling through the strife and din
Of life's great thoroughfares, …

443
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Life Is A Privilege

Life Is A Privilege

Life is a privilege. Its youthful days
Shine with the radiance of continuous Mays.
To live, to breathe, to wonder and desire,
T…

619
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Life's Harmonies

Life's Harmonies

Let no man pray that he know not sorrow,
Let no soul ask to be free from pain,
For the gall of to-day is the sweet of to-morrow,
A…

432
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Leudeman's-on-the-River

Leudeman's-on-the-River


Toward even when the day leans down,
To kiss the upturned face of night,
Out just beyond the loud-voiced town
I know …

405
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Let Me Lean Hard

Let Me Lean Hard

Let me lean hard upon the Eternal Breast;
In all earth's devious ways, I sought for rest
And found it not. I will be strong, said I,

392
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Last Love

Last Love

The first flower of the spring is not so fair
Or bright, as one the ripe midsummer brings.
The first faint note the forest warbler sings

420
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Karma

Karma


I

We cannot choose our sorrows. One there was
Who, reverent of soul, and strong with trust,
Cried, 'God, though Thou shouldst bow…

467