A Girl's Autumn Reverie

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.

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'.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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English

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Explore a curated selection of verses that share themes, styles, and emotional resonance with the poem you've just read.

Love And The Seasons

SPRING

A sudden softness in the wind;
    A glint of song, a-wing;
A fragrant sound that trails behind,
    And joy in everything.

A sudden flush upon the cheek,
    The teardrop quick to start;
A hope too delicate to speak,
    And heaven within the heart.

SUMMER

A riotous dawn and the sea's great wonder;
    The red, red heart of a rose uncurled;
And beauty tearing her veil asunder,
    In sight of a swooning world.

A call of the soul, and the senses blended;
    The Springtime lost in the glow of the sun,
And two lives rushing, as God intended,
    To meet and mingle as one.

AUTUMN

The world is out in gala dress;
    And yet it is not gay.
Its splendour hides a loneliness
    For someth...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Summer's Farewell

All in the time when Earth did most deplore
    The cold, ungracious aspect of young May,
Sweet Summer came, and bade him smile once more;
    She wove bright garlands, and in winsome play
    She bound him willing captive.    Day by day
She found new wiles wherewith his heart to please;
    Or bright the sun, or if the skies were gray,
They laughed together, under spreading trees,
By running brooks, or on the sandy shores of seas.

They were but comrades.    To that radiant maid
    No serious word he spake; no lovers' plea.
Like careless children, glad and unafraid,
    They sported in their opulence of glee.
    Her shining tresses floated wild and free;
In simple lines her emerald garments hung;
    She was both good to hear, and fair to see;
And when...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Songs Of A Country Home

I

Who has not felt his heart leap up, and glow
What time the Tulips first begin to blow,
Has one sweet joy still left for him to know.

It is like early love's imagining,
That fragile pleasure which the Tulips bring,
When suddenly we see them, in the Spring.

Not all the garden's later royal train,
Not great triumphant Roses, when they reign,
Can bring that delicate delight again.

II

One of the sweetest hours is this;
(Of all I think we like it best);
A little restful oasis,
Between the breakfast and the post.
Just south of coffee and of toast,
Just north of daily task and duty;
Just west of dreams, this island gleams,
A fertile spot of peace and beauty.

We wander out across the lawn;
We idle by a bush in b...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

An Afternoon

I am stirred by the dream of an afternoon
Of a perfect day - though it was not June;
The lilt of winds, and the droning tune
    That a busy city was humming.

And a bronze-brown head, and lips like wine
Leaning out through the window-vine
A-list for steps that were maybe mine -
    Eager steps that were coming.

I can see it all, as a dreamer may -
The tender smile on your lips that day,
And the glow on your cheek as we rode away
    Into the golden weather.

And a love-light shone in your eyes of brown -
I swear there did! - as we drove down
The crowded avenue out of the town,
    Through shadowy lanes, together:

Drove out into the sunset-skies
That glowed with wonderful crimson dyes;
And with soul and spirit, and heart and eye...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

An Autumn Day

Leaden skies and a lonesome shadow
    Where summer has passed with her gorgeous train;
Snow on the mountain, and frost on the meadow -
    A white face pressed to the window pane;
A cold mist falling, a bleak wind calling,
    And oh! but life seems vain.

Rain is better than golden weather,
    When the heart is dulled with a dumb despair.
Dead leaves lie where they walked together,
    The hammock is gone, and the rustic chair.
Let bleak snows cover the whole world over -
    It will never again seem fair.

Time laughs lightly at youth's sad 'Never,'
    Summer shall come again, smiling once more,
High o'er the cold world the sun shines for ever,
    Hearts that seemed dead are alive at the core.
Oh, but the pain of it -oh, but the gain of it,

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Unrest

In the youth of the year, when the birds were building,
    When the green was showing on tree and hedge,
And the tenderest light of all lights was gilding
    The world from zenith to outermost edge,
My soul grew sad and longingly lonely!
    I sighed for the season of sun and rose,
And I said, "In the Summer and that time only
    Lies sweet contentment and blest repose."

With bee and bird for her maids of honour
    Came Princess Summer in robes of green.
And the King of day smiled down upon her
    And wooed her, and won her, and made her queen.
Fruit of their union and true love's pledges,
    Beautiful roses bloomed day by day,
And rambled in gardens and hid in hedges
    Like royal children in sportive play.

My restless soul for a little sea...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox