A Holiday

Berlin, Germany, gave the school children a half holiday to celebrate the sinking of the Lusitania.

War declares a holiday;
Little children, run and play.
Ring-a-rosy round the earth
With the garland of your mirth.

Shrill a song brim full of glee
Of a great ship sunk at sea.
Tell with pleasure and with pride
How a hundred children died.

Sing of orphan babes, whose cries
Beat against unanswering skies;
Let a mother's mad despair
Lend staccato to your air.

Sing of babes who drowned alone;
Sing of headstones, marked 'Unknown';
Sing of homes made desolate
Where the stricken mourners wait.

Sing of battered corpses tossed
By the heedless waves, and lost.
Run, sweet children, sing and play;
War declares a holiday.

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

Wishes

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

The Two Glasses

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

Life's Harmonies

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

Only A Glove

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

English

Suggested Poems

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

Holiday Songs

I

Sailing away on a summer sea,
    Out of the bleak March weather;
Drifting away for a loaf and play,
    Just you and I together;
And it's good-bye worry and good-bye hurry
And never a care have we;
With the sea below and the sun above
And nothing to do but dream and love,
    Sailing away together.

Sailing away from the grim old town
    And tasks the town calls duty;
Sailing away from walls of grey
    To a land of bloom and beauty,
And it's good-bye to letters from our lessers and our betters,
To the cold world's smile or its frown.
We sail away on a sunny track
To find the summer and bring it back
    And love is our only duty.

II

Afloat on a sea of passion
    Without a compass or chart,
But the glow...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving for the strong armed day,
That lifted war's red curse,
When Peace, that lordly little word,
Was uttered in a voice that stirred -
Yea, shook the Universe.

Thanksgiving for the Mighty Hour
That brimmed the Victor's cup,
When England signalled to the foe,
'The German flag must be brought low
And not again hauled up!'

Thanksgiving for the sea and air
Free from the Devil's might!
Thanksgiving that the human race
Can lift once more a rev'rent face,
And say, 'God helps the Right.'

Thanksgiving for our men who came
In Heaven-protected ships,
The waning tide of hope to swell,
With 'Lusitania' and 'Cavell'
As watchwords on their lips.

Thanksgiving that our splendid dead,
All radiant with youth,
Dwell ne...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Christmas In War-Time

    1

    This is the year that has no Christmas Day,
    Even the little children must be told
    That something sad is happening far away -
    Or, if you needs must play,
    As children must,
    Play softly children, underneath your breath!
    For over our hearts hangs low the shadow of death,
    Those hearts to you mysteriously old,
    Grim grown-up hearts that ponder night and day
    On the straight lists of broken-hearted dead,
    Black narrow lists no tears can wash away,
    Reading in which one cries out here and here
    And falls into a dream upon a name.
    Be happy softly, children, for a woe
    Is on us, a great woe for little fame, -
    Ah! in the old woods leave the mistletoe,
    And leave the holly for another year,

Richard Le Gallienne

Christmas Fancies

When Christmas bells are swinging above the fields of snow,
We hear sweet voices ringing from lands of long ago,
    And etched on vacant places
    Are half-forgotten faces
Of friends we used to cherish, and loves we used to know -
When Christmas bells are swinging above the fields of snow.

Uprising from the ocean of the present surging near,
We see, with strange emotion, that is not free from fear,
    That continent Elysian
    Long vanished from our vision,
Youth's lovely lost Atlantis, so mourned for and so dear,
Uprising from the ocean of the present surging near.

When gloomy, gray Decembers are roused to Christmas mirth,
The dullest life remembers there once was joy on earth,
    And draws from youth's recesses
    Some memory it possesses,
...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Christmas Fancies

When Christmas bells are swinging above the fields of snow,
We hear sweet voices ringing from lands of long ago.
        And etched on vacant places,
        Are half forgotten faces
Of friends we used to cherish, and loves we used to know -
When Christmas bells are swinging above the fields of snow.

Uprising from the ocean of the present surging near,
We see, with strange emotion that is not free from fear,
        That continent Elysian
        Long vanished from our vision,
Youth's lovely lost Atlantis, so mourned for and so dear,
Uprising from the ocean of the present surging near.

When gloomy gray Decembers are roused to Christmas mirth,
The dullest life remembers there once was joy on earth,
        And draws from youth's recesses
        Some mem...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

The Evening Of The Holiday.

    The night is mild and clear, and without wind,
    And o'er the roofs, and o'er the gardens round
    The moon shines soft, and from afar reveals
    Each mountain-peak serene. O lady, mine,
    Hushed now is every path, and few and dim
    The lamps that glimmer through the balconies.
    Thou sleepest! in thy quiet rooms, how light
    And easy is thy sleep! No care thy heart
    Consumes; and little dost thou know or think,
    How deep a wound thou in my heart hast made.
    Thou sleepest; I to yonder heaven turn,
    That seems to greet me with a loving smile,
    And to that Nature old, omnipotent,
    That doomed me still to suffer. "I to thee
    All hope deny," she said, "e'en hope; nor may
    Those eyes of thine e'er shine, save through their tears."...

Giacomo Leopardi