Poems of Pleasure by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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American Literature – American Poetry – Ella Wheeler Wilcox – Poems by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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Poems of Pleasure

Part I. Passional

Surrender # of Pleasure
LOVE, when we met, ’twas like two planets meeting.
Strange chaos followed; body, soul, and heart
Seemed shaken, thrilled, and startled by that greeting. … Continue Reading …

The Birth Of The Opal # of Pleasure
THE Sunbeam loved the Moonbeam,
And followed her low and high,
But the Moonbeam fled and hid her head, … Continue Reading …

The Difference # of Pleasure
PASSION is what the sun feels for the earth
When harvests ripen into golden birth. … Continue Reading …

Two Loves # of Pleasure
THE woman he loved, while he dreamed of her,
Danced on till the stars grew dim,
But alone with her heart, from the world apart, … Continue Reading …

The Way Of It # of Pleasure
THIS is the way of it, wide world over,
One is beloved, and one is the lover,
One gives and the other receives. … Continue Reading …

Angel Or Demon # of Pleasure
YOU call me an angel of love and of light,
A being of goodness and heavenly fire,
Sent out from God’s kingdom to guide you aright, … Continue Reading …

Dawn # of Pleasure
DAY’S sweetest moments are at dawn;
Refreshed by his long sleep, the Light
Kisses the languid lips of Night, … Continue Reading …

Peace And Love # of Pleasure
THERE are two angels, messengers of light,
Both born of God, who yet are bitterest foes.
No human breast their dual presence knows. … Continue Reading …

The Instructor # of Pleasure
NOT till we meet with Love in all his beauty,
In all his solemn majesty and worth,
Can we translate the meaning of life’s duty, … Continue Reading …

Blase # of Pleasure
THE world has outlived all its passion,
Its men are inane and blase,
Its women mere puppets of fashion; … Continue Reading …

The Sea-Breeze And The Scarf # of Pleasure
HUNG on the casement that looked o’er the main,
Fluttered a scarf of blue;
And a gay, bold breeze paused to flatter and tease … Continue Reading …

Three And One # of Pleasure
SOMETIMES she seems so helpless and so mild,
So full of sweet unreason and so weak,
So prone to some capricious whim or freak; … Continue Reading …

Inborn # of Pleasure
AS long as men have eyes wherewith to gaze,
As long as men have eyes.
The sight of beauty to their sense shall be … Continue Reading …

Two Prayers # of Pleasure
DEAR, when you lift your gentle heart in prayer,
Ask God to send His angel Death to me
Long ere He comes to you, if that may be. … Continue Reading …

Sleep And Death # of Pleasure
WHEN sleep drops down beside my Love and me,
Although she wears the countenance of a friend,
A jealous foe we prove her in the end. … Continue Reading …

Absence # of Pleasure
AFTER you went away, our lovely room
Seemed like a casket whence the soul had fled.
I stood in awful and appalling gloom, … Continue Reading …

Love Much # of Pleasure
LOVE much. Earth has enough of bitter in it.
Cast sweets into its cup whene’er you can.
No heart so hard, but love at last may win it. … Continue Reading …

One Of Us Two # of Pleasure
THE day will dawn, when one of us shall hearken
In vain to hear a voice that has grown dumb.
And morns will fade, noons pale, and shadows darken, … Continue Reading …

Her Reverie # of Pleasure
WE were both of us—aye, we were both of us there,
In the self-same house at the play together,
To her it was summer, with bees in the air— … Continue Reading …

Two Sinners # of Pleasure
THERE was a man, it was said one time,
Who went astray in his youthful prime.
Can the brain keep cool and the heart keep quiet … Continue Reading …

What Love Is # of Pleasure
LOVE is the center and circumference;
The cause and aim of all things—’tis the key
To joy and sorrow, and the recompense … Continue Reading …

Constancy # of Pleasure
I WILL be true. Mad stars forsake their courses,
And led by reckless meteors, turn away
From paths appointed by Eternal Forces; … Continue Reading …

Part II. Philosophical

Resolve # of Pleasure
AS the dead year is clasped by a dead December,
So let your dead sins with your dead days lie.
A new life is yours, and a new hope. Remember, … Continue Reading …

Optimism # of Pleasure
I’M no reformer; for I see more light
Than darkness in the world; mine eyes are quick
To catch the first dim radiance of the dawn, … Continue Reading …

Pain’s Proof # of Pleasure
I THINK man’s great capacity for pain
Proves his immortal birthright. I am sure
No merely human mind could bear the strain … Continue Reading …

Immortality # of Pleasure
IMMORTAL life is something to be earned,
By slow self-conquest, comradeship with Pain,
And patient seeking after higher truths. … Continue Reading …

Answered Prayers # of Pleasure
I PRAYED for riches, and achieved success;
All that I touched turned into gold. Alas!
My cares were greater and my peace was less, … Continue Reading …

The Lady Of Tears # of Pleasure
THROUGH valley and hamlet and city,
Wherever humanity dwells,
With a heart full of infinite pity, … Continue Reading …

The Master Hand # of Pleasure
IT is something too strange to understand,
How all the chords on the instrument,
Whether sorrowful, blithe, or grand, … Continue Reading …

Secret Thoughts # of Pleasure
I HOLD it true that thoughts are things
Endowed with bodies, breath, and wings,
And that we send them forth to fill … Continue Reading …

There Comes A Time # of Pleasure
THERE comes a time to every mortal being,
Whate’er his station or his lot in life,
When his sad soul yearns for the final freeing … Continue Reading …

The World # of Pleasure
WITH noiseless steps good goes its way;
The earth shakes under evil’s tread.
We hear the uproar, and ’tis said, … Continue Reading …

Necessity # of Pleasure
NECESSITY, whom long I deemed my foe,
Thou cold, unsmiling, and hard-visaged dame,
Now I no longer see thy face, I know … Continue Reading …

Achievement # of Pleasure
TRUST in thine own untried capacity
As thou wouldst trust in God Himself. Thy soul
Is but an emanation from the whole. … Continue Reading …

Belief # of Pleasure
THE pain we have to suffer seems so broad,
Set side by side with this life’s narrow span,
We need no greater evidence that God … Continue Reading …

Whatever Is—Is Best # of Pleasure
I KNOW as my life grows older,
And mine eyes have clearer sight—
That under each rank wrong, somewhere … Continue Reading …

Peace At The Goal # of Pleasure
FROM the soul of a man who was homeless
Came the deathless song of home.
And the praises of rest are chanted best … Continue Reading …

The Law # of Pleasure
LIFE is a Shylock; always it demands
The fullest usurer’s interest for each pleasure.
Gifts are not freely scattered by its hands; … Continue Reading …

Recompense # of Pleasure
STRAIGHT through my heart this fact to-day,
By Truth’s own hand is driven:
God never takes one thing away, … Continue Reading …

Desire # of Pleasure
NO joy for which thy hungering heart has panted,
No hope it cherishes through waiting years,
But if thou dost deserve it, shall be granted … Continue Reading …

Deathless # of Pleasure
THERE lies in the center of each man’s heart,
A longing and love for the good and pure;
And if but an atom, or larger part, … Continue Reading …

Keep Out Of The Past # of Pleasure
KEEP out of the Past! for its highways
Are damp with malarial gloom;
Its gardens are sere and its forests are drear. … Continue Reading …

The Fault Of The Age # of Pleasure
THE fault of the age is a mad endeavor
To leap to heights that were made to climb:
By a burst of strength, of a thought most clever, … Continue Reading …

Distrust # of Pleasure
DISTRUST that man who tells you to distrust:
He takes the measure of his own small soul,
And thinks the world no larger. He who prates … Continue Reading …

Artist And Man # of Pleasure
TAKE thy life better than thy work. Too oft
Our artists spend their skill in rounding soft
Fair curves upon their statues, while the rough … Continue Reading …

Part III. Miscellaneous

Babyland # of Pleasure
HAVE you heard of the Valley of Babyland,
The realm where the dear little darlings stay,
Till the kind storks go, as all men know, … Continue Reading …

A Face # of Pleasure
BETWEEN the curtains of snowy lace,
Over the way is a baby’s face;
It peeps forth, smiling in merry glee, … Continue Reading …

An Old Comrade # of Pleasure
ALL suddenly between me and the light,
That brightly shone, and warm,
Robed in the pall-like garments of the night, … Continue Reading …

Entre-Acte Reveries # of Pleasure
BETWEEN the acts while the orchestra played
That sweet old waltz with the lilting measure,
I drifted away to a dear dead day, … Continue Reading …

A Plea # of Pleasure
COLUMBIA, large-hearted and tender,
Too long for the good of your kin
You have shared your home’s comfort and splendor … Continue Reading …

The Room Beneath The Rafters # of Pleasure
SOMETIMES when I have dropped to sleep,
Draped in a soft luxurious gloom,
Across my drowsing mind will creep … Continue Reading …

The Mother-In-Law # of Pleasure
SHE was my dream’s fulfilment and my joy,
This lovely woman whom you call your wife.
You sported at your play, an idle boy, … Continue Reading …

An Old Fan # of Pleasure
IT is soiled and quite passe,
Broken too, and out of fashion,
But it stirs my heart some way, … Continue Reading …

No Classes! # of Pleasure
NO classes here! Why, that is idle talk.
The village beau sneers at the country boor;
The importuning mendicants who walk … Continue Reading …

A Gray Mood # of Pleasure
AS we hurry away to the end, my friend,
Of this sad little farce called existence,
We are sure that the future will bring one thing, … Continue Reading …

At An Old Drawer # of Pleasure
BEFORE this scarf was faded,
What hours of mirth it knew!
How gaily it paraded … Continue Reading …

The Old Stage Queen # of Pleasure
BACK in the box by the curtains shaded,
She sits alone by the house unseen;
Her eye is dim, her cheek is faded, … Continue Reading …

Faith # of Pleasure
I WILL not doubt, though all my ships at sea
Come drifting home with broken masts and sails;
I shall believe the Hand which never fails, … Continue Reading …

The True Knight # of Pleasure
WE sigh above historic pages,
Brave with the deeds of courtly men,
And wish those peers of middle ages … Continue Reading …

The City # of Pleasure
I OWN the charms of lovely Nature; still,
In human nature more delight I find.
Though sweet the murmuring voices of the rill, … Continue Reading …

Woman # of Pleasure
GIVE us that grand word “woman” once again,
And let’s have done with “lady”: one’s a term
Full of fine force, strong, beautiful, and firm, … Continue Reading …

The Soul’s Farewell To The Body # of Pleasure
SO we must part forever; and although
I long have beat my wings and cried to go,
Free from your narrow limiting control, … Continue Reading …

Thimble Islands # of Pleasure
BETWEEN the shore and the distant sky-lands,
Where a ship’s dim shape seems etched on space,
There lies this cluster of lovely islands, … Continue Reading …

My Grave # of Pleasure
IF, when I die, I must be buried, let
No cemetery engulph me—no lone grot,
Where the great palpitating world comes not, … Continue Reading …

Refuted # of Pleasure
IT may be, yet I have not found it so.
In those first golden dreams of future fame
I did not find such happiness as came … Continue Reading …

The Lost Land # of Pleasure
THERE is a story of a beauteous land,
Where fields were fertile and where flowers were bright;
Where tall towers glistened in the morning light, … Continue Reading …

The South # of Pleasure
A QUEEN of indolence and idle grace,
Robed in the vestments of a costly gown,
She turns the languor of her lovely face … Continue Reading …

A Sailor’s Wife # of Pleasure
SUN in my lattice, and sun on the sea
(Oh, but the sun is fair),
And a sky of blue and a sea of green, … Continue Reading …

Life’s Journey # of Pleasure
AS we speed out of youth’s sunny station,
The track seems to shine in the light,
But it suddenly shoots over chasms … Continue Reading …

The Disappointed # of Pleasure
THERE are songs enough for the hero
Who dwells on the heights of fame;
I sing for the disappointed— … Continue Reading …

Fishing # of Pleasure
MAYBE this is fun, sitting in the sun,
With a book and parasol, as my Angler wishes,
While he dips his line in the ocean brine, … Continue Reading …

A Pin # of Pleasure
OH, I know a certain lady who is reckoned with the good,
Yet she fills me with more terror than a raging lion would.
The little chills run up and down my spine whene’er we meet, … Continue Reading …

The Actor # of Pleasure
OH, man, with your wonderful dower,
Oh, woman, with genius and grace,
You can teach the whole world with your power, … Continue Reading …

Illogical # of Pleasure
SHE stood beside me while I gave an order for a bonnet.
She shuddered when I said, “And put a bright bird’s wing upon it.” … Continue Reading …

New Year # of Pleasure
I SAW on the hills of the morning,
The form of the New Year arise,
He stood like a statue adorning … Continue Reading …

New Year # of Pleasure
AS the old year sinks down in Time’s ocean,
Stand ready to launch with the new,
And waste no regrets, no emotion, … Continue Reading …

Now # of Pleasure
ONE looks behind him to some vanished time
And says, “Ah, I was happy then, alack!
I did not know it was my life’s best prime— … Continue Reading …

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American Literature – American Poetry – Ella Wheeler Wilcox – Poems by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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Poems of Pleasure

Part I. Passional

Part II. Philosophical

Part III. Miscellaneous

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