Song. (Excerpt from "Maurine")

        O thou, mine other, stronger part!
    Whom yet I cannot hear, or see,
        Come thou, and take this loving heart,
    That longs to yield its all to thee,
    I call mine own - Oh, come to me!
    Love, answer back, I come to thee,
        I come to thee.

        This hungry heart, so warm, so large,
    Is far too great a care for me.
        I have grown weary of the charge
    I keep so sacredly for thee.
    Come thou, and take my heart from me.
    Love, answer back, I come to thee,
        I come to thee.

        I am aweary, waiting here
    For one who tarries long from me.
        O! art thou far, or art thou near?
    And must I still be sad for thee?
    Or wilt thou straightway come to me?
    Love, answer, I am near to thee,
        I come to thee.

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

Through Tears

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

Guerdon

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

The Times

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

The Pessimist

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.

Parting

Lean down, and kiss me, O my love, my own;
    The day is near when thy fond heart will miss me;
And o'er my low green bed, with bitter moan,
    Thou wilt lean down, but cannot clasp or kiss me.

How strange it is, that I, so loving thee,
    And knowing we must part, perchance to-morrow,
Do comfort find, thinking how great will be
    Thy lonely desolation, and thy sorrow.

And stranger -sadder, O mine own other part,
    That I should grudge thee some surcease of weeping;
Why do I not rejoice, that in thy heart,
    Sweet love will bloom again when I am sleeping?

Nay, make no promise.    I would place no bar
    Upon thy future, even wouldst thou let me.
Thou hast, thou dost, well love me, like a man:
    And, like a man, in time thou wilt forget...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Song. (Excerpt from "Maurine")

        O praise me not with your lips, dear one!
    Though your tender words I prize.
        But dearer by far is the soulful gaze
    Of your eyes, your beautiful eyes,
        Your tender, loving eyes.

        O chide me not with your lips, dear one!
    Though I cause your bosom sighs.
        You can make repentance deeper far
    By your sad, reproving eyes,
        Your sorrowful, troubled eyes.

        Words, at the best, are but hollow sounds;
    Above, in the beaming skies,
        The constant stars say never a word,
    But only smile with their eyes -
        Smile on with their lustrous eyes.

        Then breathe no vow with your lips, dear one;
    On the wingèd wind speech flies.
        But I read the truth of your no...

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

Her Love. (Excerpt From "Maurine")

    The sands upon the ocean side
    That change about with every tide,
    And never true to one abide,
        A woman's love I liken to.

    The summer zephyrs, light and vain,
    That sing the same alluring strain
    To every grass blade on the plain -
        A woman's love is nothing more.

    The sunshine of an April day
    That comes to warm you with its ray,
    But while you smile has flown away -
        A woman's love is like to this.

    God made poor woman with no heart,
    But gave her skill, and tact, and art,
    And so she lives, and plays her part.
        We must not blame, but pity her.

    She leans to man - but just to hear
    The praise he whispers in her ear,
    Herself, not him, she holdeth dea...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Deceitful Calm

The winds are still; the sea lies all untroubled
    Beneath a cloudless sky; the morn is bright,
Yet, Lord, I feel my need of Thee is doubled;
    Come nearer to me in this blaze of light;
The night must fall, -the storm will burst at length.
    Oh! give me strength.

So well, so well, I know the treacherous seeming
    Of days like this; they are too heavenly fair.
Those waves that laugh like happy children dreaming,
    Are mighty forces brewing some despair
For thoughtless hearts, and ere the hour of need,
    Let mine take heed.

Joy cannot last; it must give place to sorrow
    As certainly as solar systems roll.
I would not wait till that time comes to borrow
    The strength prayer offers to a suffering soul.
Here in the sunlight -yet undimm...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

A Woman's Love

So vast the tide of love within me surging,
    It overflows like some stupendous sea,
    The confines of the Present and To-be;
And 'gainst the Past's high wall I feel it urging,
    As it would cry, "Thou, too, shalt yield to me!"

All other loves my supreme love embodies;
    I would be she on whose soft bosom nursed
    Thy clinging infant lips to quench their thirst;
She who trod close to hidden worlds where God is,
    That she might have, and hold, and see thee first.

I would be she who stirred the vague, fond fancies
    Of thy still childish heart; who through bright days
    Went sporting with thee in the old-time plays,
And caught the sunlight of thy boyish glances
    In half-forgotten and long-buried Mays.

Forth to the end, and back t...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox