Have you ever felt the profound connection between love and life, as if they dance together in an intricate rhythm?
Ella Wheeler Wilcox masterfully captures this dance in her poetry, weaving together themes of passion, heartache, and growth.
Here are 10 of Wilcox’s most captivating poems that illuminate the delicate interplay between love and life, and discover how her words can resonate with your own heart.
Let’s jump right in!
My favorite Ella Wheeler Wilcox poem
#1 “A Book For The King” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
A book has been made for the King,
A book of beauty and art;
To the good king’s eyes
A smile shall rise
Hiding the ache in his heart –
Hiding the hurt and the grief
As he turns it, leaf by leaf.
A book has been made for the King,
A book of blood and of blight;
To the Great King’s eyes
A look shall rise
That will blast and wither and smite –
Yes, smite with a just God’s rage,
As He turns it, page by page.
I chose this poem as my favorite because Wilcox masterfully captures the complexities of human emotion, showing how art can conceal and reveal our struggles.
It reminds us that behind every smile lies the potential for grief and that true understanding often comes from confronting life’s darker aspects.
9 more Ella Wheeler Wilcox poems
#2 “A Girl’s Autumn Reverie” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
We plucked a red rose, you and I,
All in the summer weather;
Sweet its perfume and rare its bloom,
Enjoyed by us together.
The rose is dead, the summer fled,
And bleak winds are complaining;
We dwell apart, but in each heart
We find the thorn remaining.
We sipped a sweet wine, you and I,
All in the summer weather.
The beaded draught we lightly quaffed,
And filled the glass together.
Together we watched its rosy glow,
And saw its bubbles glitter;
Apart, alone we only know
The lees are very bitter.
We walked in sunshine, you and I,
All in the summer weather:
The very night seemed noonday bright,
When we two were together.
I wonder why with our good-bye
O’er hill and vale and meadow
There fell such shade, our paths seemed laid
For evermore in shadow.
We dreamed a sweet dream, you and I,
All in the summer weather,
Where rose and wine and warm sunshine
Were mingled in together.
We dreamed that June was with us yet,
We woke to find December.
We dreamed that we two could forget,
We woke but to remember.
#3 “You Never Can Tell” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
You never can tell when you send a word,
Like an arrow shot from a bow
By an archer blind, be it cruel or kind,
Just where it may chance to go.
It may pierce the breast of your dearest friend.
Tipped with its poison or balm,
To a stranger’s heart in life’s great mart,
It may carry its pain or its calm.
You never can tell when you do an act
Just what the result will be;
But with every deed you are sowing a seed,
Though the harvest you may not see.
Each kindly act is an acorn dropped
In God’s productive soil
You may not know, but the tree shall grow,
With shelter for those who toil.
You never can tell what your thoughts will do,
In bringing you hate or love;
For thoughts are things, and their airy wings
Are swifter than carrier doves.
They follow the law of the universe –
Each thing must create its kind,
And they speed o’er the track to bring you back
Whatever went out from your mind.
#4 “You And To-Day” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
With every rising of the sun
Think of your life as just begun.
The past has shrived and buried deep
All yesterdays – there let them sleep,
Nor seek to summon back one ghost
Of that innumerable host.
Concern yourself with but to-day;
Woo it and teach it to obey
Your wish and will. Since time began
To-day has been the friend of man.
But in his blindness and his sorrow
He looks to yesterday and to-morrow.
You and to-day! a soul sublime
And the great pregnant hour of time.
With God between to bind the train,
Go forth, I say – attain – attain.
#5 “Worth While” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
It is easy enough to be pleasant
When life flows by like a song,
But the man worth while is the one who will smile
When everything goes dead wrong.
For the test of the heart is trouble,
And it always comes with the years,
And the smile that is worth the praises of earth
Is the smile that shines through tears.
It is easy enough to be prudent
When nothing tempts you to stray,
When without or within no voice of sin
Is luring your soul away;
But it’s only a negative virtue
Until it is tried by fire,
And the life that is worth the honour on earth
Is the one that resists desire.
By the cynic, the sad, the fallen,
Who had no strength for the strife,
The world’s highway is cumbered to-day –
They make up the sum of life;
But the virtue that conquers passion,
And the sorrow that hides in a smile –
It is these that are worth the homage on earth,
For we find them but once in a while.
#6 “Wishing” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Do you wish the world were better?
Let me tell you what to do:
Set a watch upon your actions,
Keep them always straight and true;
Rid your mind of selfish motives;
Let your thoughts be clean and high.
You can make a little Eden
Of the sphere you occupy.
Do you wish the world were wiser?
Well, suppose you make a start,
By accumulating wisdom
In the scrapbook of your heart:
Do not waste one page on folly;
Live to learn, and learn to live.
If you want to give men knowledge
You must get it, ere you give.
Do you wish the world were happy?
Then remember day by day
Just to scatter seeds of kindness
As you pass along the way;
For the pleasures of the many
May be ofttimes traced to one,
As the hand that plants an acorn
Shelters armies from the sun.
#7 “Will” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
There is no chance, no destiny, no fate,
Can circumvent or hinder or control
The firm resolve of a determined soul.
Gifts count for nothing; will alone is great;
All things give way before it, soon or late.
What obstacle can stay the mighty force
Of the sea-seeking river in its course,
Or cause the ascending orb of day to wait?
Each well-born soul must win what it deserves.
Let the fool prate of luck. The fortunate
Is he whose earnest purpose never swerves,
Whose slightest action or inaction serve.
The one great aim.
Why, even Death stands still,
And waits an hour sometimes for such a will.
#8 “What Is Flirtation?” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
What is flirtation? Really,
How can I tell you that?
But when she smiles I see its wiles,
And when he lifts his hat.
‘Tis walking in the moonlight,
‘Tis buttoning on a glove,
‘Tis lips that speak of plays next week,
While eyes are talking love.
‘Tis meeting in the ball-room,
‘Tis whirling in the dance;
‘Tis something hid beneath the lid
More than a simple glance.
‘Tis lingering in the hallway,
‘Tis sitting on the stair,
‘Tis bearded lips on finger-tips,
If mamma isn’t there.
‘Tis tucking in the carriage,
‘Tis asking for a call;
‘Tis long good-nights in tender lights,
And that is – no, not all!
‘Tis parting when it’s over,
And one goes home to sleep;
Best joys must end, tra la, my friend,
But one goes home to weep!
#9 “The Jealous Gods” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
‘Oh life is wonderful,’ she said,
‘And all my world is bright;
Can Paradise show fairer skies,
Or more effulgent light?’
(Speak lower, lower, mortal heart,
The jealous gods may hear.)
She turned for answer; but his gaze
Cut past her like a lance,
And shone like flame on one who came
With radiant glance for glance.
(You spoke too loud, O mortal heart,
The jealous gods were near.)
They walked through green and sunlit ways;
And yet the earth seemed black,
For there were three, where two should be;
So runs the world, alack.
(The listening gods, the jealous gods,
They want no Edens here.)
#10 “Rubies” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
The crimson life-drops from a virgin heart
Pierced to the core by Cupid’s fatal dart.