An Answer.

        If all the year was summer time,
    And all the aim of life
        Was just to lilt on like a rhyme,
    Then I would be your wife.

        If all the days were August days,
    And crowned with golden weather,
        How happy then through green-clad ways
    We two could stray together!

        If all the nights were moonlit nights,
    And we had naught to do
        But just to sit and plan delights,
    Then I would wed with you.

        If life was all a summer fete,
    Its soberest pace the "glide,"
        Then I would choose you for my mate,
    And keep you at my side.

        But winter makes full half the year,
    And labor half of life,
        And all the laughter and good cheer
    Give place to wearing strife.

        Days will grow cold, and moons wax old.
    And then a heart that's true
        Is better far than grace or gold -
    And so, my love, adieu!
    I cannot wed with you.

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

A Little Song

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

Seeking For Happiness

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

Over The May Hill.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

What Gain?

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.

Dear love, if you and I could sail away,
    With snowy pennons to the winds unfurled,
Across the waters of some unknown bay,
    And find some island far from all the world;

If we could dwell there, evermore alone,
    While unrecorded years slip by apace,
Forgetting and forgotten and unknown
    By aught save native song-birds of the place;

If Winter never visited that land,
    And Summer's lap spilled o'er with fruits and flowers,
And tropic trees cast shade on every hand,
    And twined boughs formed sleep-inviting bowers;

If from the fashions of the world set free,
    And hid away from all its jealous strife,
I lived alone for you, and you for me -
    Ah! then, dear love, how sweet were wedded life.

But since we dwell here in th...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

An Old Man To His Sleeping Young Bride

As when the old moon lighted by the tender
    And radiant crescent of the new is seen,
And for a moment's space suggests the splendor
    Of what in its full prime it once has been,
So on my waning years you cast the glory
    Of youth and pleasure, for a little hour;
And life again seems like an unread story,
    And joy and hope both stir me with their power.

Can blooming June be fond of bleak December?
    I dare not wait to hear my heart reply.
I will forget the question -and remember
    Alone the priceless feast spread for mine eye,
That radiant hair that flows across the pillows,
    Like shimmering sunbeams over drifts of snow;
Those heaving breasts, like undulating billows,
    Whose dangers or delights but Love can know.

That crimson mou...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

If.

Dear love, if you and I could sail away,
    With snowy pennons to the winds unfurled,
Across the waters of some unknown bay,
    And find some island far from all the world;

If we could dwell there, ever more alone,
    While unrecorded years slip by apace,
Forgetting and forgotten and unknown
    By aught save native song-birds of the place;

If Winter never visited that land,
    And Summer's lap spilled o'er with fruits and flowers,
And tropic trees cast shade on every hand,
    And twinèd boughs formed sleep-inviting bowers;

If from the fashions of the world set free,
    And hid away from all its jealous strife,
I lived alone for you, and you for me -
    Ah! then, dear love, how sweet were wedded life.

But since we dwell here in t...

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

Life And I.

Life and I are lovers, straying
    Arm in arm along:
Often like two children Maying,
    Full of mirth and song.

Life plucks all the blooming hours
    Growing by the way;
Binds them on my brow like flowers;
    Calls me Queen of May.

Then again, in rainy weather,
    We sit vis-a-vis,
Planning work we'll do together
    In the years to be.

Sometimes Life denies me blisses,
    And I frown or pout;
But we make it up with kisses
    Ere the day is out.

Woman-like, I sometimes grieve him,
    Try his trust and faith,
Saying I shall one day leave him
    For his rival Death.

Then he always grows more zealous,
    Tender, and more true;
Loves the more for being jealous,
    As all lovers do.

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