Poems List

Explore poems from our collection

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Poverty And Wealth

Poverty And Wealth

The stork flew over a town one day,
And back of each wing an infant lay;
One to a rich man’s home he brought,
And one …

380
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Preaching Vs Practice

Preaching Vs Practice

It is easy to sit in the sunshine
And talk to the man in the shade;
It is easy to float in a well-trimmed boat,
And…

347
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

PH. Best & Co.'s Lager-Beer

PH. Best & Co.'s Lager-Beer

In every part of the thrifty town,
Whether my course be up or down,
In lane, and alley, and avenue,
Painted i…

331
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Platonic

Platonic


I knew it the first of the summer,
I knew it the same at the end,
That you and your love were plighted,
But couldn’t you…

370
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Perfectness

Perfectness


All perfect things are saddening in effect.
The autumn wood robed in its scarlet clothes,
The matchless tinting on the royal …

321
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Peek-A-Boo

Peek-A-Boo


The cunningest thing that a baby can do
Is the very first time it plays peek-a-boo;


When it hides its pink lit…

364
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Pardoned Out

Pardoned Out

I’m pardoned out. Again the stars
Shine on me with their myriad eyes.
So long I’ve peered ‘twixt iron bars,
I’m awed by this…

392
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Over The May Hill

Over The May Hill

All through the night time, and all through the day time,
Dreading the morning and dreading the night,
Nearer and nearer we dri…

350
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Over The Alley

Over The Alley

Here in my office I sit and write
Hour on hour, and day on day,
With no one to speak to from morn till night,
Though I hav…

430
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Our Lives

Our Lives

Our lives are songs. God writes the words,
And we set them to music at pleasure;
And the song grows glad, or sweet, or sad,
As …

395
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Our Atlas

Our Atlas

Not Atlas, with his shoulders bent beneath the weighty world,
Bore such a burden as this man, on whom the Gods have hurled
The evils of…

451
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Optimism

Optimism


Talk happiness. The world is sad enough
Without your woes. No path is wholly rough;
Look for the places that are smooth and clea…

378
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Only A Sad Mistake

Only A Sad Mistake

Only a blunder-a sad mistake;
All my own fault and mine alone.
The saddest error a heart can make;
I was so young, or …

440
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Only A Slight Flirtation

Only A Slight Flirtation

‘Twas just a slight flirtation,
And where’s the harm, I pray,
In that amusing pastime
So much in vogue to-day? <…

429
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

One Woman's History

One Woman's History

'The maiden free, the maiden wed.
Can never, never be the same,
A new life springs from out the dead.
And with the sp…

409
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

One By One

One By One

Little by little and one by one,
Out of the ether, were worlds created;
Star and planet and sea and sun,
All in the nebulous N…

404
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Older Than You

Older Than You

We are younger in years! Yes, that is true;
But in some things we are older than you.
For instance, you sometimes say with a smile…

379
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Old Rhythm And Rhyme

Old Rhythm And Rhyme

They tell me new methods now govern the Muses,
The modes of expression have changed with the times;
That low is the rank of …

413
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Now I lay Me

Now I lay Me

When I pass from earth away,
Palsied though I be and gray,
May my spirit keep so young
That my failing, faltering tongue

460
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Noblesse Oblige

Noblesse Oblige

I hold it the duty of one who is gifted
And specially dowered I all men’s sight,

To know no rest till his life is lifted …

493
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

New And Old

New And Old

I and new love, in all its living bloom,
Sat vis-à-vis, while tender twilight hours
Went softly by us, treading as on flowers.

414
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

My Vision

My Vision

Wherever my feet may wander
Wherever I chance to be,
There comes, with the coming of even' time
A vision sweet to me.
I…

437
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

My Home

My Home

This is the place that I love the best,
A little brown house, like a ground-bird's nest,
Hid among grasses, and vines, and trees,

362
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

My Friend

My Friend

When first I looked upon the face of Pain
I shrank repelled, as one shrinks from a foe
Who stands with dagger poised, as for a blow.

416