The Kingdom Of Love

In the dawn of the day when the sea and the earth
    Reflected the sunrise above,
I set forth with a heart full of courage and mirth
    To seek for the Kingdom of Love.
I asked of a Poet I met on the way
    Which cross-road would lead me aright;
And he said "Follow me, and ere long you shall see
    Its glittering turrets of light."

And soon in the distance a city shone fair.
    "Look yonder," he said; "How it gleams!"
But alas! for the hopes that were doomed to despair,
    It was only the "Kingdom of Dreams."
Then the next man I asked was a gay Cavalier,
    And he said: "Follow me, follow me";
And with laughter and song we went speeding along
    By the shores of Life's beautiful sea.

Then we came to a valley more tropical far
    Than the wonderful vale of Cashmere,
And I saw from a bower a face like a flower
    Smile out on the gay Cavalier;
And he said: "We have come to humanity's goal:
    Here love and delight are intense."
But alas and alas! for the hopes of my soul -
    It was only the "Kingdom of Sense."

As I journeyed more slowly I met on the road
    A coach with retainers behind;
And they said: "Follow me, for our Lady's abode
    Belongs in that realm, you will find."
'Twas a grand dame of fashion, a newly-made bride,
    I followed, encouraged and bold;
But my hopes died away like the last gleams of day,
    For we came to the "Kingdom of Gold."

At the door of a cottage I asked a fair maid.
    "I have heard of that realm," she replied;
"But my feet never roam from the 'Kingdom of Home,'
    So I know not the way," and she sighed.
I looked on the cottage; how restful it seemed!
    And the maid was as fair as a dove.
Great light glorified my soul as I cried:
    "Why, Home is the 'Kingdom of Love'!"

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

The Graduates

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A Fable.

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Two

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Resurrection

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

English

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Realisation

Hers was a lonely, shadowed lot;
Or so the unperceiving thought,
Who looked no deeper than her face,
Devoid of chiselled lines of grace -
No farther than her humble grate,
And wondered how she bore her fate.

Yet she was neither lone nor sad;
So much of love her spirit had,
She found an ever-flowing spring
Of happiness in everything.

So near to her was Nature's heart
It seemed a very living part
Of her own self; and bud and blade,
And heat and cold, and sun and shade,
And dawn and sunset, Spring and Fall,
Held raptures for her, one and all.

The year's four changing seasons brought
To her own door what thousands sought
In wandering ways and did not find -
Diversion and content of mind.

She loved the tasks that filled e...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

The House Of Life

All wondering, and eager-eyed, within her portico
I made my plea to Hostess Life, one morning long ago.

"Pray show me this great house of thine, nor close a single door;
But let me wander where I will, and climb from floor to floor!

For many rooms, and curious things, and treasures great and small
Within your spacious mansion lie, and I would see them all."

Then Hostess Life turned silently, her searching gaze on me,
And with no word, she reached her hand, and offered up the key.

It opened first the door of Hope, and long I lingered there,
Until I spied the room of Dreams, just higher by a stair.

And then a door whereon the one word "Happiness" was writ;
But when I tried the little key I could not make it fit.

It turned the lock of Pleasure's r...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

The Land Of Content

I set out for the Land of Content,
    By the gay crowded pleasure-highway,
With laughter, and jesting, I went
    With the mirth-loving throng for a day;
    Then I knew I had wandered astray,
For I met returned pilgrims, belated,
Who said, "We are weary and sated,
But we found not the Land of Content."

I turned to the steep path of fame,
    I said, "It is over yon height -
This land with the beautiful name -
    Ambition will lend me its light."
    But I paused in my journey ere night,
For the way grew so lonely and troubled;
I said - my anxiety doubled -
"This is not the road to Content."

Then I joined the great rabble and throng
    That frequents the moneyed world's mart;
But the greed, and the grasping and wrong,
    Left me ...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Love's Mirage

Midway upon the route, he paused athirst
    And suddenly across the wastes of heat,
    He saw cool waters gleaming, and a sweet
Green oasis upon his vision burst.
A tender dream, long in his bosom nursed,
    Spread love's illusive verdure for his feet;
    The barren sands changed into golden wheat;
The way grew glad that late had seemed accursed.

She shone, the woman wonder, on his soul;
    The garden spot, for which men toil and wait;
    The house of rest, that is each heart's demand;
But when, at last, he reached the gleaming goal,
    He found, oh, cruel irony of fate,
    But desert sun upon the desert sand.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

The Land Of The Gone-Away-Souls

Oh! that is a beautiful land I wis,
The land of the Gone-Away Souls.
Yes, a lovelier region by far than this
(Though this is a world most fair),
The goodliest goal of all good goals,
Else why do our friends stay there?
I walk in a world that is sweet with friends,
And earth I have ever held dear;
Yes, love with duty and beauty blends,
To render the earth plane bright.
But faster and faster, year on year
My comrades hurry from sight.

They hurry away to the Over-There,
And few of them say Farewell.
Yes, they go away with a secret air
As if on a secret quest.
And they come not back to the earth to tell
Why that land seems the best.

Messages come from the mystic sphere,
But few know the code of that land;
Yes, many the message, but ...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

The Land Of Content.

I set out for the Land of Content,
    By the gay crowded pleasure-highway,
With laughter, and jesting, I went
    With the mirth-loving throng for a day;
    Then I knew I had wandered astray,
For I met returned pilgrims, belated,
Who said, "We are weary and sated,
But we found not the Land of Content."

I turned to the steep path of fame,
    I said, "It is over yon height -
This land with the beautiful name -
    Ambition will lend me its light."
    But I paused in my journey ere night,
For the way grew so lonely and troubled;
I said - my anxiety doubled -
"This is not the road to Content."

Then I joined the great rabble and throng
    That frequents the moneyed world's mart;
But the greed, and the grasping and wrong,
    Left me ...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox