Guilo.

        Yes, yes! I love thee, Guilo; thee alone.
    Why dost thou sigh, and wear that face of sorrow?
        The sunshine is to-day's, although it shone
    On yesterday, and may shine on to-morrow.

        I love but thee, my Guilo! be content;
    The greediest heart can claim but present pleasure.
        The future is thy God's. The past is spent.
    To-day is thine; clasp close the precious treasure.

        See how I love thee, Guilo! Lips and eyes
    Could never under thy fond gaze dissemble.
        I could not feign these passion-laden sighs;
    Deceiving thee, my pulses would not tremble.

        "So I loved Romney." Hush, thou foolish one -
    I should forget him wholly wouldst thou let me;
        Or but remember that his day was done
    From that supremest hour when first I met thee.

        "And Paul?" Well, what of Paul? Paul had blue eyes,
    And Romney gray, and thine are darkly tender!
        One finds fresh feelings under change of skies -
    A new horizon brings a newer splendor.

        As I love thee I never loved before;
    Believe me, Guilo, for I speak most truly.
        What though to Romney and to Paul I swore
    The self-same words; my heart now worships newly.

        We never feel the same emotion twice:
    No two ships ever ploughed the self-same billow;
        The waters change with every fall and rise;
    So, Guilo, go contented to thy pillow.

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

It May Be

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

Memory's River

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

The Way

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

Life

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.

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

Beppo.

        Why art thou sad, my Beppo? But last eve,
    Here at my feet, thy dear head on my breast,
        I heard thee say thy heart would no more grieve
    Or feel the olden ennui and unrest.

        What troubles thee? Am I not all thine own? -
    I, so long sought, so sighed for and so dear?
        And do I not live but for thee alone?
    "Thou hast seen Lippo, whom I loved last year!"

        Well, what of that? Last year is naught to me -
    'Tis swallowed in the ocean of the past.
        Art thou not glad 'twas Lippo, and not thee,
    Whose brief bright day in that great gulf was cast.
        Thy day is all before thee. Let no cloud,
    Here in the very morn of our delight,
        Drift up from distant foreign skies, to shroud
  ...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Love's Supremacy

As yon great Sun in his supreme condition
    Absorbs small worlds and makes them all his own,
So does my love absorb each vain ambition,
    Each outside purpose which my life has known.
Stars cannot shine so near that vast orb'd splendour;
    They are content to feed his flames of fire:
And so my heart is satisfied to render
    Its strength, its all, to meet thy strong desire.

As in a forest when dead leaves are falling
    From all save some perennial green tree,
So one by one I find all pleasures palling
    That are not linked with or enjoyed by thee.
And all the homage that the world may proffer,
    I take as perfumed oils or incense sweet,
And think of it as one thing more to offer,
    And sacrifice to Love, at thy dear feet.

I love myse...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

The Other

All alone with my heart to-night
    I sit, and wonder, and sigh.
What is she like, is she dark, or light,
This other woman who has the right
    To love him better than I?

We never have spoken her name, we two;
    There was no need somehow,
But she lives, and loves, and her heart is true;
From the very first this much I knew,
    So why should it hurt me now.

I fancy her tall, and I think her fair,
    Oh! fairer than I by half.
With sweet, calm eyes, and a wealth of hair,
And a heart as perfectly free from care
    As is her silvery laugh.

She loves rich jewels that flash in the light,
    And revels in costly lace,
And first in the morning, and last at night
She kisses one ring on her finger white;
    (How came those tears...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Individuality.

        O yes, I love you, and with all my heart;
    Just as a weaker woman loves her own,
        Better than I love my beloved art,
    Which, till you came, reigned royally, alone,
        My king, my master. Since I saw your face
        I have dethroned it, and you hold that place.

        I am as weak as other women are:
    Your frown can make the whole world like a tomb;
        Your smile shines brighter than the sun, by far.
    Sometimes I think there is not space or room
        In all the earth for such a love as mine,
        And it soars up to breathe in realms divine.

        I know that your desertion or neglect
    Could break my heart, as women's hearts do break.
        If my wan days had nothing to expect
    From your love's splen...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Meditations - His

I was so proud of you last night, dear girl,
While man with man was striving for your smile.
You never lost your head, nor once dropped down
From your high place
As queen in that gay whirl.

(It takes more poise to wear a little crown
With modesty and grace
Than to adorn the lordlier thrones of earth.)

You seem so free from artifice and wile:
And in your eyes I read
Encouragement to my unspoken thought.
My heart is eloquent with words to plead
Its cause of passion; but my questioning mind,
Knowing how love is blind,
Dwells on the pros and cons, and God knows what.

My heart cries with each beat,
'She is so beautiful, so pure, so sweet,
So more than dear.'
And then I hear
The voice of Reason, asking:    'Would she meet
Life's...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox