A Crushed Leaf

An hour ago when the wind blew high
    At my lady's window a red leaf beat.
Then dropped at her door, where, passing by,
    She carelessly trod it under her feet.

I have taken it out of the dust and dirt,
    With a tender pity but half defined.
Ah! poor bruised leaf, with your stain and hurt,
    'A fellow-feeling doth make us kind.'

On winds of passion my heart was blown,
    Like an autumn leaf one hapless day.
At my lady's window with tap and moan
    It burned and fluttered its life away.

Bright with the blood of its wasting tide
    It glowed in the sun of her laughing eyes.
What cared she though a stray heart died -
    What to her were its sobs and sighs.

The winds of passion were spent at last,
    And my heart like the leaf in her pathway lay;
And under her slender foot as she passed,
    My lady she trod it and went her way.

So I picked the leaf from its dusty place,
    With a tender pity -too well defined.
And I laid it here in this velvet case,
    Ah! a fellow-feeling doth make us kind.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Ella Wheeler Wilcox was an American author and poet, born on November 5, 1850, and died on October 30, 1919. She was known for her works expressing optimistic views and moral lessons. Her most famous book was 'Poems of Passion'. Her poem 'Solitude' contains the famous lines, 'Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone'. Over her career, Wilcox became popularly known as a 'people's poet'.

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English

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A Leaf

Somebody said, in the crowd, last eve,
    That you were married, or soon to be.
I have not thought of you, I believe,
    Since last we parted.    Let me see:
Five long Summers have passed since then -
    Each has been pleasant in its own way -
And you are but one of a dozen men
    Who have played the suitor a Summer day.

But, nevertheless, when I heard your name,
    Coupled with some one's, not my own,
There burned in my bosom a sudden flame,
    That carried me back to the day that is flown.
I was sitting again by the laughing brook,
    With you at my feet, and the sky above,
And my heart was fluttering under your look -
    The unmistakable look of Love.

Again your breath, like a South wind, fanned
    My cheek, where the blushes came ...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

A Leaf.

Somebody said, in the crowd, last eve,
    That you were married, or soon to be.
I have not thought of you, I believe,
    Since last we parted. Let me see:
Five long Summers have passed since then -
    Each has been pleasant in its own way -
And you are but one of a dozen men
    Who have played the suitor a Summer day.

But, nevertheless, when I heard your name,
    Coupled with some one's, not my own,
There burned in my bosom a sudden flame,
    That carried me back to the day that is flown.
I was sitting again by the laughing brook,
    With you at my feet, and the sky above,
And my heart was fluttering under your look -
    The unmistakable look of Love.

Again your breath, like a South wind, fanned
    My cheek, where the blushes came and...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Confession

I


How shall a maid make answer to a man
Who summons her, by love's supreme decree,
To open her whole heart, that he may see
The intricate strange ways that love began.
So many streams from that great fountain ran
To feed the river that now rushes free,
So deep the heart, so full of mystery;
How shall a maid make answer to a man?

If I turn back each leaflet of my heart,
And let your eyes scan all the records there,
Of dreams of love that came before I KNEW,
Though in those dreams you had no place or part,
Yet, know that each emotion was a stair
Which led my ripening womanhood to YOU.



II


Nay, I was not insensate till you came;
I know man likes to think a woman clay,
Devoid of feeling till the warming ray<...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

The Story.

They met each other in the glade -
    She lifted up her eyes;
Alack the day! Alack the maid!
    She blushed in swift surprise.
Alas! alas! the woe that comes from lifting up the eyes.

The pail was full, the path was steep -
    He reached to her his hand;
She felt her warm young pulses leap,
    But did not understand.
Alas! alas! the woe that comes from clasping hand with hand.

She sat beside him in the wood -
    He wooed with words and sighs;
Ah! love in spring seems sweet and good,
    And maidens are not wise.
Alas! alas! the woe that comes from listing lovers' sighs.

The summer sun shone fairly down,
    The wind blew from the south;
As blue eyes gazed in eyes of brown,
    His kiss fell on her mouth.
Alas! alas! the wo...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

An Old Bouquet

I opened a long closed drawer to-day,
And among the souvenirs stored away
Were the faded leaves of an old bouquet.

Those faded leaves were as white as snow,
With a background of green, to make them show,
When you gave them to me long years ago.

They carried me back in a flash of light
To a perfumed, perfect summer night,
And a rider who came on a steed of white.

I can see it all -how you rode down
Like a knight of old, from the dusty town,
With a passionate glow in your eyes of brown.

Again I stand by the garden gate,
While the golden sun slips low, and wait
And watch your coming, my love, my fate.

Young and handsome and debonair
You leap to my side in the garden there,
And I take your flowers, and call them fair.

...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

A Maiden To Her Mirror

He said he loved me! Then he called my hair
    Silk threads wherewith sly Cupid strings his bow,
    My cheek a rose leaf fallen on new snow;
And swore my round, full throat would bring despair
To Venus or to Psyche.

    Time and care
    Will fade these locks; the merry god, I trow,
    Uses no grizzled cords upon his bow.
How will it be when I, no longer fair,
    Plead for his kiss with cheeks whence long ago
The early snowflakes melted quite away,
The rose leaf died -and in whose sallow clay
    Lie the deep sunken tracks of life's gaunt crow?

When this full throat shall wattle fold on fold,
    Like some ripe peach left drying on a wall,
    Or like a spent accordion, when all
Its music has exhaled -will love grow cold?

Ella Wheeler Wilcox