To Marry Or Not To Marry? A Girl's Reverie

Mother says, "Be in no hurry,
Marriage oft means care and worry."

Auntie says, with manner grave,
"Wife is synonym for slave."

Father asks, in tones commanding,
"How does Bradstreet rate his standing?"

Sister crooning to her twins,
Sighs, "With marriage care begins."

Grandma, near life's closing days,
Murmurs, "Sweet are girlhood's ways."

Maud, twice widowed ("sod and grass")
Looks at me and moans "Alas!"

They are six, and I am one,
Life for me has just begun.

They are older, calmer, wiser:
Age should aye be youth's adviser.

They must know - and yet, dear me,
When in Harry's eyes I see

All the world of love there burning -
On my six advisers turning,

I make answer, "Oh, but Harry
Is not like most men who marry.

"Fate has offered me a prize,
Life with love means Paradise.

"Life without it is not worth
All the foolish joys of earth."

So, in spite of all they say,
I shall name the wedding day.

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

Two Ghosts

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

Slipping Away.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

The Tiger.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

Love's Burial

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

English

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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 t...

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

At The Bridal

Oh! but the bride was lovely,
    Oh! but the scene was bright,
And why was the bridegroom's face as pale
    As his lady's robe of white?

Did you not see beside him
    A guest unasked, unbid?
Who came up the aisle with silent feet
    And gazed at him? he did!

He saw her eyes upon him,
    He felt her icy breath;
And under the bride's warm clinging hand
    There crept the touch of death.

And above the low responses
    There fell upon his ear
A voice forbidding the nuptial banns;
    But no one else could hear.

And when the ring was given,
    And when the prayer was said,
He knew, as he led his bride away,
    That he was not truly wed.

And while they sat at the banquet,
    And mirth flowed like the w...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Marriage Thoughts: by Morsellin Khan

Bridegroom
I give you my house and my lands, all golden with harvest;
My sword, my shield, and my jewels, the spoils of my strife,
My strength and my dreams, and aught I have gathered of glory,
And to-night - to-night, I shall give you my very life.

Bride
I may not raise my eyes, O my Lord, towards you,
And I may not speak: what matter? my voice would fail.
But through my dowacast lashes, feeling your beauty,
I shiver and burn with pleasure beneath my veil.

Younger Sisters
We throw sweet perfume upon her head,
And delicate flowers round her bed.
Ah, would that it were our turn to wed!

Mother
I see my daughter, vaguely, through my tears,
(Ah, lost caresses of my early years!)
I see the bridegroom, King of men i...

Adela Florence Cory Nicolson

Dell And I

    In a mansion grand, just over the way
    Lives bonny, beautiful Dell;
    You may have heard of this lady gay,
    For she is a famous belle.
    I live in a low cot opposite -
    You never have heard of me;
    For when the lady moon shines bright,
    Who would a pale star see?
But ah, well! ah, well!    I am happier far than Dell,
    As strange as that may be.

    Dell has robes of the richest kind -
    Pinks and purples and blues;
    And she worries her maid and frets her mind
    To know which one to choose.
    Which shall it be now, silk or lace?
    In which will I be most fair?
    She stands by the mirror with anxious face,
    And her maid looks on in despair.
Ah, well! ah, well!    I am not worried, you see, like Dell,

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