Uncontrolled

The mighty forces of mysterious space
    Are one by one subdued by lordly man.
    The awful lightning that for eons ran
Their devastating and untrammeled race,
Now bear his messages from place to place
    Like carrier doves. The winds lead on his van;
    The lawless elements no longer can
Resist his strength, but yield with sullen grace.

His bold feet scaling heights before untrod,
    Light, darkness, air and water, heat and cold
        He bids go forth and bring him power and pelf.
And yet though ruler, king and demi-god
    He walks with his fierce passions uncontrolled
        The conquerer of all things -save himself.

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

Life

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

A Wish

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

Uselessness

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

Two

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Simple Poetry

English

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Action

For ever stars are winging
    Their swift and endless race;
For ever suns are swinging
    Their mighty globes through space.
Since by his law required
To join God's spheres inspired,
The earth has never tired,
    But whirled and whirled and whirled.
For ever streams are flowing,
For ever seeds are growing,
Alway is Nature showing
    That Action rules the world.

And since by God requested
    To BE, the glorious light
Has never paused or rested,
    But travelled day and night.
Yet pigmy man, unseeing
The purpose of his being,
Demands escape and freeing
    From universal force.
But law is law for ever,
And like a mighty lever
It thrusts him tow'rd endeavour,
    And speeds him on his course.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Spirit Of A Great Control

Spirit of a Great Control,
    Gird me with thy strength and might,
Essence of the Over-Soul -
    Fill me, thrill me with thy light;
Though the waves of sorrow beat
    Madly at my very feet,
Though the night and storm are near,
    Teach me that I need not fear.

Though the clouds obscure the sky,
    When the tempest sweeps the lands,
Still about, below, on high,
    God's great solar system stands.
Never yet a star went out.
    What have I to fear or doubt? -
I, a part of this great whole,
    Governed by the Over-Soul.

Like the great eternal hills,
    Like the rock that fronts the wave,
Let me meet all earthly ills
    With a fearless heart and brave;
Like the earth that drinks the rain,
    Let me welcome floods of p...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Fate And I

Wise men tell me thou, O Fate,
Art invincible and great.

Well, I own thy prowess; still
Dare I flout thee with my will

Thou canst shatter in a span
All the earthly pride of man.

Outward things thou canst control;
But stand back - I rule my soul!

Death?    'Tis such a little thing -
Scarcely worth the mentioning.

What has death to do with me,
Save to set my spirit free?

Something in me dwells, O Fate,
That can rise and dominate

Loss, and sorrow, and disaster, -
How, then, Fate, art thou my master?

In the great primeval morn
My immortal will was born,

Part of that stupendous Cause
Which conceived the Solar Laws,

Lit the suns and filled the seas,
Royalest of pedigrees.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

The Voice Of The Voiceless

I am the voice of the voiceless;
    Through me the dumb shall speak;
Till the deaf world's ear be made to hear
    The cry of the wordless weak.
From street, from cage, and from kennel,
    From jungle and stall, the wail
Of my tortured kin proclaims the sin
    Of the mighty against the frail.

I am a ray from the centre;
    And I will feed God's spark,
Till a great light glows in the night and shows
    The dark deeds done in the dark.
And full on the thoughtless sleeper
    Shall flash its glaring flame,
Till he wakens to see what crimes may be
    Cloaked under an honoured name.

The same Force formed the sparrow
    That fashioned man, the king;
The God of the Whole gave a spark of soul
    To furred and to feathered thing.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

The Tides

Oh, vain is the stern protesting
    Of winds, when the tide runs high;
And vainly the deep-sea waters
    Call out, as the waves speed by;
For, deaf to the claim of the ocean,
    To the threat of the loud winds dumb,
Past reef and bar, to shores afar,
    They rush when the hour is come.

Vainly the tempest thunders,
    Of unsexed waves that roam,
Away from the mid-sea calmness,
    Where Nature made their home.
For the voice of the great Moon-Mother,
    Has spoken and said, 'Be free.'
And the tide must go to the strong full flow,
    In the time of the perigee.

So vain is the cry of the masters,
    And vain the plea of the hearth;
As the ranks of the strange New Woman
    Go sweeping across the earth.
They have come from ha...

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Unconquered

However skilled and strong art thou, my foe,
However fierce is thy relentless hate,
Though firm thy hand, and strong thy aim, and straight
Thy poisoned arrow leaves the bended bow,

To pierce the target of my heart, ah! know
    I am the master yet of my own fate.
    Thou canst not rob me of my best estate,
Though fortune, fame, and friends, yea, love shall go.

Not to the dust shall my true self be hurled,
    Nor shall I meet thy worst assaults dismayed;
    When all things in the balance are well weighed,
There is but one great danger in the world -
    THOU CANST NOT FORCE MY SOUL TO WISH THEE ILL,
    That is the only evil that can kill.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox