The Weed

A weed is but an unloved flower!
    Go dig, and prune, and guide, and wait,
    Until it learns its high estate,
And glorifies some bower.
    A weed is but an unloved flower!

All sin is virtue unevolved,
    Release the angel from the clod -
    Go love thy brother up to God.
Behold each problem solved.
    All sin is virtue unevolved.

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

Lean Down.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

This Is My Task

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

The Hammock's Complaint

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

Astrolabius (The Child Of Abelard And Heloise)

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

English

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Weed Or Flower

    "'Tis but a common thing," one coldly said,
        "Nay, call it not a flower - this little weed,
        If plucking it, I kill it, root and seed -
    Better the world were if it lay there dead."

    "Ah - rather let it live!" a second cried,
        "Weed it may be, and yet it has its use,
        Here in its healing essence its excuse
    For blooming lies, and here its only pride."

    "Destroy it not!" another pled, "Behold
        This tapering leaf - this soft and tender green,
        Upon my canvas it shall bloom serene -
    This tiny chalice-fleck of living gold."

    Then one bent over it, "Ah, flowret bright!
        For only flowers in this garden grow, -
        His earth, His sunshine made thee, o'er thee blow
    His winds, ...

Helen Leah Reed

Insight

On the river of life, as I float along,
    I see with the spirit's sight
That many a nauseous weed of wrong
    Has root in a seed of right.
For evil is good that has gone astray,
    And sorrow is only blindness,
And the world is always under the sway
    Of a changeless law of kindness.

The commonest error a truth can make
    Is shouting its sweet voice hoarse,
And sin is only the soul's mistake
    In misdirecting its force.
And love, the fairest of all fair things
    That ever to man descended,
Grows rank with nettles and poisonous things
    Unless it is watched and tended.

There could not be anything better than this
    Old world in the way it began;
And though some matters have gone amiss
    From the great original plan,<...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Garden And Gardener

To weed the Garden of the Mind
Of all rank growths of doubt and sin,
And let faith's flowers thrive and win
To blossom; and, through faith, to find
That lilies, too, can toil and spin,
And roses work for good and right;
That even the frailest flower that fills
A serious purpose, as God wills,
Is all man needs to give him light,
Is all he needs for all his ills.
Here is a Garden gone to flowers
While one beside it runs to weeds
Yet both were sown with similar seeds:
What was it? Did the World, or Hours,
Bring forth according to their needs?
Or was it that the Gardener
Neglected one? or did not care
What growths matured to slay and snare?
Thinking, whatever might occur,
Labour, perhaps, would manage there.
But Labour looked and took his ease,...

Madison Julius Cawein

The Useful Weed.

        Do not despise the humble weed,
        For the Lord He first sowed the seed,
        Perhaps it bears most precious fruit,
        And useful leaves and potent root.

        Though it seems now a useless weed,
        Countless millions it yet may feed,
        Or future ages it may prize,
        Finding in it beauteous dyes.

        Or a valued healing balm,
        Will make the heated pulse beat calm,
        And the future men of science,
        May place on it strong reliance.

        And it may play important part,
        In advancing skill and art,
        And no person now doth know
        How useful are the weeds that grow.

        Weeds we now look on with loathing,
        They may yet be used for clothing,<...

James McIntyre

Karma

I

We cannot choose our sorrows.    One there was
Who, reverent of soul, and strong with trust,
Cried, 'God, though Thou shouldst bow me to the dust,
Yet will I praise thy everlasting laws.
Beggared, my faith would never halt or pause,
But sing Thy glory, feasting on a crust.
Only one boon, one precious boon I must
Demand of Thee, O opulent great Cause.
Let Love stay with me, constant to the end,
Though fame pass by and poverty pursue.'
With freighted hold her life ship onward sailed;
The world gave wealth, and pleasure, and a friend,
Unmarred by envy, and whose heart was true.
But ere the sun reached midday, Love had failed.

II

Then from the depths, in bitterness she cried,
'Hell is on earth, and heaven is but a dream;
And human lif...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Wild Oats.

Oh gay young husbandmen would you be sure of a crop
Upspringing rankly, an abundant and bountiful yield?
Go forth in the morning, and sow on your life's broad field
This pleasantly odorous seed, then smooth the ground on top,
Or leave it rough, with the utmost undeceit,
Never you fear, it will thriftily thrive and grow,
Loading the harvest plain beneath your feet,
With the ripened sheaves of shame, remorse, and woe.

You have but to sow the seed, no care will it want,
For he who soweth tares while the husbandman sleeps
Taketh unwearied pains, a vigilant guard he keeps
Tirelessly watching, and tending each evil plant.
These are his pleasure gardens, leased to him through time
Where he walketh to and fro, chanting a demon song;
Tending with ghastly fingers, the scarl...

Marietta Holley