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    Poems Of Optimism: "And the smile that is worth the praises of earth is the smile that shines through tears."
    Poems Of Optimism: "And the smile that is worth the praises of earth is the smile that shines through tears."
    Poems Of Optimism: "And the smile that is worth the praises of earth is the smile that shines through tears."
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    Poems Of Optimism: "And the smile that is worth the praises of earth is the smile that shines through tears."

    By Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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    Born on November 5th 1850 in Johnstown, Wisconsin, Ella Wheeler was the youngest of four children. She began to write as a child and by the time she graduated was already well known as a poet throughout Wisconsin. Regarded more as a popular poet than a literary poet her most famous work ‘Solitude’ reflects on a train journey she made where giving comfort to a distressed fellow traveller she wrote how the others grief imposed itself for a time on her ‘Laugh and the world laughs with you, Weep and you weep alone’. It was published in 1883 and was immensely popular. The following year, 1884, she married Robert Wilcox. They lived for a time in New York before moving to Connecticut. Their only child, a son, died shortly after birth. Here we publish one of her many poetry books, Poems Of Optimism, that so endeared her to her audience. Ella died of breast cancer on October 30th, 1919.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCopyright Group
    Release dateNov 12, 2013
    ISBN9781783945832
    Poems Of Optimism: "And the smile that is worth the praises of earth is the smile that shines through tears."

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      Book preview

      Poems Of Optimism - Ella Wheeler Wilcox

      Poems of Optimism by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

      Poetry is a fascinating use of language.  With almost a million words at its command it is not surprising that these Isles have produced some of the most beautiful, moving and descriptive verse through the centuries.  In this series we look at the world through the eyes and minds of our most gifted poets to bring you a unique poetic guide to their lives.  

      Born on November 5th 1850 in Johnstown, Wisconsin, Ella Wheeler was the youngest of four children.  She began to write as a child and by the time she graduated was already well known as a poet throughout Wisconsin.

      Regarded more as a popular poet than a literary poet her most famous work ‘Solitude’ reflects on a train journey she made where giving comfort to a distressed fellow traveller she wrote how the others grief imposed itself for a time on her ‘Laugh and the world laughs with you, Weep and you weep alone’. It was published in 1883 and was immensely popular.

      The following year, 1884, she married Robert Wilcox.  They lived for a time in New York before moving to Connecticut.  Their only child, a son, died shortly after birth.  It was around this time they developed an interest in spiritualism which for Ella would develop further into an interest in the occult.  In later years this and works on positive thinking would occupy much of her writing.

      On Robert’s death in 1916 she spent months waiting for word from him from ‘the other side’ which never came. 

      In 1918 she published her autobiography The Worlds And I.

      Ella died of cancer on October 30th, 1919.

      Index Of Poems

      War

      Greater Britain

      Belgium

      Knitting

      Mobilisation

      Neutral

      A Book For the King

      The Men-Made Gods

      The Ghosts

      The Poet's Theme

      Europe

      After

      The Peace Angel

      Peace Should Not Come

      Miscellaneous

      The Winds of Fate

      Beauty

      The Invisible Helpers

      To the Women of Australia

      Replies

      Earth Bound

      A Successful Man

      Unsatisfied

      Separation

      To the Teachers of the Young

      Beauty Making

      On Avon's Breast I Saw a Stately Swan

      The Little Go-Cart

      I Am Running Forth to Meet You

      Martyrs of Peace

      Home

      The Eternal Now

      If I Were a Man, a Young Man

      We Must Send Them Out to Play

      Protest

      Reward

      This is My Task

      The Statue

      Behold the Earth

      What They Saw

      His Last Letter

      A Dialogue

      A Wish

      Justice

      An Old Song

      Oh, Poor, Sick World

      Praise Day

      Interlude

      The Land of the Gone-Away-Souls

      The Harp's Song

      The Pendulum

      An Old-Fashioned Type

      The Sword

      Love and the Seasons

      A Naughty Little Comet

      The Last Seance

      A Vagabond Mind

      My Flower Room

      My Faith

      Arrow and Bow

      If We Should Meet Him

      Faith

      The Secret of Prayer

      The Answer

      A Vision

      The Second Coming

      Ella Wheeler Wilcox – A Short Biography

      Ella Wheeler Wilcox – A Concise Bibliography

      GREATER BRITAIN

      Our hearts were not set on fighting,

      We did not pant for the fray,

      And whatever wrongs need righting,

      We would not have met that way.

      But the way that has opened before us

      Leads on thro' a blood-red field;

      And we swear by the great God o'er us,

      We will die, but we will not yield.

      The battle is not of our making,

      And war was never our plan;

      Yet, all that is sweet forsaking,

      We march to it, man by man.

      It is either to smite, or be smitten,

      There's no other choice to-day;

      And we live, as befits the Briton,

      Or we die, as the Briton may.

      We were not fashioned for cages,

      Or to feed from a keeper's hand;

      Our strength which has grown thro' ages

      Is the strength of a slave-free land.

      We cannot kneel down to a master,

      To our God alone can we pray;

      And we stand in this world disaster,

      To fight, like a lion at bay.

      BELGIUM

      Ruined? destroyed?  Ah, no; though blood in rivers ran

      Down all her ancient streets; though treasures manifold

      Love-wrought, Time-mellowed, and beyond the price of gold

      Are lost, yet Belgium's star shines still in God's vast plan.

      Rarely have Kings been great, since kingdoms first began;

      Rarely have great kings been great men, when all was told.

      But, by the lighted torch in mailed hands, behold,

      Immortal Belgium's immortal king, and Man.

      KNITTING

      At the concert and the play

      Everywhere you see them sitting,

      Knitting, knitting.

      Women who the other day

      Thought of nothing but their frocks

      Or their jewels or their locks,

      Women who have lived for pleasure,

      Who have known no work but leisure,

      Now are knitting, knitting, knitting

      For the soldiers over there.

      On the trains and on the ships

      With a diligence befitting,

      They are knitting.

      Some with smiles upon their lips,

      Some with manners debonair,

      Some with earnest look and air.

      But each heart in its own fashion,

      Weaves in pity and compassion

      In their knitting, knitting, knitting

      For the soldiers over there.

      Hurried women to and

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