Ella Wheeler Wilcox

“ For the things we are begging Him to do, He wants us to do ourselves.
Jehovah, Jesus, and each soul in space
Are one and undividable. Until
We see God shining in each neighbour’s face
And find Him in ourselves and hail Him there,
What use is prayer?
Let us be still.
How can we love the whole and not each part?
How worship God, and harbour in the heart
Hate of God’s members—for all men are that.
Too long our souls have sat,
Like poor blind beggars at the door of God.
He never made a beggar—we are kings! ”

“ It sees man ever as a child of God,
Growing in wisdom as new realms are trod,
Until the Christ in him is One with All.
From this full consciousness my faith is borrowing
Light to illuminate Life’s darkest sorrowing,
Whatever woes assail me still I cry:
‘God reigns on high!
He doeth all things well.’
My faith finds prayer the language of the heart,
Which gives us converse with the host unseen;
And those who linger in the vales between
The Here and Yonder, in these prayers take part.
My dead come near, and say: ‘Death means not perishing ”

“ Just for to-day not a tear shall be shed;
Nor will we fear anything, or go borrowing
Pain from the future by profitless dread.
Thought shall go frolicking,
Pleasuring, treasuring everything bright—
Tasting the joy that is found just in rollicking
On through the light.
p. 94Just for to-day all the ills that need bettering
We will omit from our notebook of mind;
All that is good we will mark by red-lettering;—
Those things alone we are seeking to find.
Things to be sad over,
Pine over, whine over—pass them, I say!
Nothing is noted save what we are glad over—
This is Praise Day. ”

“ These hideous things, that are each nation’s pride.
So long as men believe in armèd might
Let arms be brandished. Let not Peace be sought
Until the race-heart empties out all thought
Of blows and blood, as arguments for Right.
p. 22The world has never had enough of war,
Else war were not. Now let the monster stand,
Until he slays himself with his own hand;
Though no man knows what he is fighting for. ”

“ These and yet more shameful things mine eyes beheld.
Old men upon lascivious conquest bent, and young men living with no thought of God;
And half clothed women puffing at a weed, aping the vices of the underworld—
p. 75Engrossed in shallow pleasures and intent on being barren wives.
These things I saw.
(How God must loathe His earth.)
Glad man, Glad man, tell me, pray,
What did you see to-day?
I saw an aged couple, in whose eyes
Shone that deep light of mingled love and faith
Which makes the earth one room of Paradise,
And leaves no sting in death. ”

“ Hail to your land and you!
p. 33REPLIES You have lived long and learned the secret of life, O Seer!
Tell me what are the best three things to seek—
The best three things for a man to seek on earth?
The best three things for a man to seek, O Son! are these:
Reverence for that great Source from whence he came;
Work for the world wherein he finds himself;
And knowledge of the Realm toward which he goes.
What are the best three things to love on earth, O Seer!
What are the best three things for a man to love?
The best three things for a man to love, O Son! ”

“ See the wrong things slay themselves, leaving only Right;
When this little mortal mind gets the larger view.
Cavillings at this and that, censure, doubt and fear,
Fly, as fly before the dawn, insects of the night;
Life and Death are understood; everything seems clear,
All the wrong things slay themselves, leaving only Right.
p. 91The World has walked with fever in its veins
For many and many a day. Oh, poor, sick world! ”

“ To-day hold all things, ready for thy taking.
p. 59IF I WERE A MAN, A YOUNG MAN If I were a man, a young man, and knew what I know to-day,
I would look in the eyes of Life undaunted
By any Fate that might threaten me.
I would give to the world what the world most wanted—
Manhood that knows it can do and be;
Courage that dares, and faith that can see
Clear into the depths of the human soul,
And find God there, and the ultimate goal,
If I were a man, a young man, and knew what I know to-day. ”

“ No Star is robbed by lending darkness light.
SHE I give you friendship as I understand it,
A sentiment I feel for all mankind.
HE Oh, give me more; may not one friend command it?
SHE Look in the skies, ’tis there the star you’ll find;
It casts its beams on all with equal favour.
HE I would have more than what all men may claim.
p. 82SHE Then your ideas of friendship strongly savour
Of sentiments which wear another name.
HE May not one friend receive more than another?
SHE Not man from woman and still remain a friend. ”

“ Be brave and true!
p. 47BEAUTY MAKING Methinks there is no greater work in life
Than making beauty. Can the mind conceive
One little corner in celestial realms
Unbeautiful, or dull or commonplace?
Or picture ugly angels, illy clad?
Beauty and splendour, opulence and joy,
Are attributes of God and His domain,
And so are worth and virtue. But why preach
Of virtue only to the sons of men,
Ignoring beauty, till they think it sin? ”

“ Makes cowards out of men. The human race
Has climbed on protest. Had no voice been raised
Against injustice, ignorance and lust
The Inquisition yet would serve the law
And guillotines decide our least disputes.
The few who dare must speak and speak again
To right the wrongs of many. Speech, thank God,
No vested power in this great day and land
Can gag or throttle; Press and voice may cry
Loud disapproval of existing ills,
May criticise oppression and condemn
The lawlessness of wealth-protecting laws
That let the children and child-bearers toil
To purchase ease for idle millionaires, ”

“ Sunk in vindictive hate of man for man.
Pretentious Wealth, in unearned robes of beauty,
Flung Want a pittance from her bulging purse,
While ill-paid Toil went on dull rounds of duty,
Hell in her heart, and on her lips a curse.
Then spoke the Christ (so wondrous was my vision)
(Deep, deep, His voice, with sorrow’s cadence fraught) :
‘This world to-day would be a realm elysian
Had my disciples lived the love I taught.
Un-Christlike is the Christian creed men fashion
Who kneel to worship, and who rise to slay. ”

“ Beyond the glare of day’s obscuring light,
So Justice dwells, though mortal eyes in vain
Seek it persistently by reason’s sight.
But, when once freed, the illumined soul looks out—
Its cry will be, ‘O God, how could I doubt?’
p. 87AN OLD SONG Two roadways lead from this land to That, and one is the road of Prayer;
And one is the road of Old-time Songs, and every note is a stair.
A shabby old man with a music machine on the sordid city street;
But suddenly earth seemed Arcady, and life grew young and sweet. ”

“ The soul of man replete with God’s own force,
The call ‘to heights,’ and not the cry ‘to horse.’
Are there not better themes in this great age
For pen of poet, or for voice of sage,
Than those old tales of killing? Song is dumb
Only that greater song in time may come.
When comes the bard, he whom the world waits for,
He will not sing of War.
p. 18EUROPE Little lads and grandsires,
Women old with care;
But all the men are dying men
Or dead men over there.
No one stops to dig graves ”

“ 25THE WINDS OF FATE One ship drives east and another drives west,
With the self-same winds that blow,
’Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales
That tell them the way to go.
Like the winds of the sea are the winds of fate,
As we voyage along through life,
’Tis the set of the soul
That decides its goal
And not the calm or the strife. ”

“ To please my whim; yet ever so you urge me,
p. 40Urge me to risk my happiness—yea, life itself—
So lightly do you hold me.’ And then she weeps,
Always she weeps, until I kiss away her tears
And soothe her with sweet lies, saying I am content.
Then she goes singing through the house like some bright bird
Preening her wings, making herself all beautiful,
Perching upon my knee, and pecking at my lips
With little kisses. ”

“ And infinite beauty adorned the earth.
p. 72BEHOLD THE EARTH Behold the earth swung in among the stars
Fit home for gods if men were only kind—
Do thou thy part to shape it to those ends,
By shaping thine own life to perfectness.
Seek nothing for thyself or thine own kin
That robs another of one hope or joy,
Let no man toil in poverty and pain
To give thee unearned luxury and ease. ”

“ It is not a matter of hugging a creed
That will lift us up to the light,
But in keeping our trust that Love is just,
And that whatever is, is right.
p. 126When the hopes of this world into chaos are hurled,
And the devil seems running the earth,
When the bad folks stay and the good pass away,
And greed fares better than worth,
Oh, that is the hour to trust in the Power
That will straighten the tangle out;
For death and sorrow are little things,
But a terrible thing is doubt.
p. 127THE SECRET OF PRAYER
For he who climbs to say his prayer
Meets half way the descending Grace. ”

“ Some strange, new scheme of colour and of form.
Autumn spoke loudly of the beautiful.
Winter, though rude, is delicate in art—
More delicate than Summer or than fall
(Even as rugged man is more refined
In vital things than woman) . ”

“ Child, go thy way inside the gate,
Where many eager loved ones wait.
Death is but larger life begun.’
p. 131A VISION My soul beheld a vision of the Master:
Methought He stood with grieved and questioning eyes,
Where Freedom drove its chariot to disaster
And toilers heard, unheeding, toilers’ cries.
Where man withheld God’s bounties from his neighbour,
And fertile fields were sterilised by greed;
Where Labour’s hand was lifted against labour,
And suffering serfs to despots turned when freed.
Majestic rose tall steeple after steeple;
Imperious bells called worshippers to prayer ”

“ Busy handed come and go.
Broken bits of time they spare,
Just to feel they do their share,
Just to keep life’s sense of beauty
In the doing of a duty,
They are knitting, knitting, knitting
For the soldiers over there.
p. 8MOBILISATION Oh the Kings of earth have mobilised their men.
See them moving, valour proving,
To the fields of glory going,
Banners flowing, bugles blowing,
Every one a mother’s son,
Brave with uniform and gun,
Keeping step with easy swing,
Yes, with easy step and light marching onward to the fight,
Just to please the warlike fancy of a King ”

“ But the Kings have had their fight;
Death has mobilised his army for the grave.
p. 10NEUTRAL That pale word ‘Neutral’ sits becomingly
On lips of weaklings. But the men whose brains
Find fuel in their blood, the men whose minds
Hold sympathetic converse with their hearts,
Such men are never neutral. That word stands
Unsexed and impotent in Realms of Speech.
When mighty problems face a startled world
No virile man is neutral. Right or wrong
His thoughts go forth, assertive, unafraid
To stand by his convictions, and to do
Their part in shaping issues to an end. ”

“ And say: ‘God do this; God do that!—
Make the world better; relieve the sorrows of man; for the sake of Thy Son,
Oh, forgive all sin!’ Then, having planned out God’s work, to feel
Our duty is done.
It is easy to be religious this way—
Easy to pray.
It is harder to stand on the highway, or walk in the crowded mart;
And say: ‘I am He. I am He.
‘Mine the world-burden; mine the sorrows of men; mine the Christ-work
‘To forgive my brother’s sin,’ and then to live the Christ-part and never to shirk.
p. 120It is hard for you and me
To be religious this way,
Day after day. ”

“ Down to the hidden vaults of Time, where lie the worn-out things
I see the passing of Kings.
p. 20THE PEACE ANGEL Angel of Peace, the hounds of war,
Unleashed, are all abroad,
And war’s foul trade again is made
Man’s leading aim in life. ”

“ When he beckons the dancer, the dancer must go.
You may hate him, and shun him; and yet in life’s ball
For the one who lives well ’tis the best dance of all.
p. 112A VAGABOND MIND Since early this morning the world has seemed surging
With unworded rhythm, and rhyme without thought. ”

“ Where the wrong things slay themselves, leaving only Right.
Oh, poor, sick world!
p. 93PRAISE DAY Let us halt now for a space in our hurrying;
Let us take time to look up and look out;
Let us refuse for a spell to be worrying;
Let us decline to both question and doubt.
If one goes cavilling,
Hair splitting, flaw hunting—ready for strife—
All the best pleasure is missed in the travelling
Onward through life. ”

“ And the hand and the mind of a man should keep at a work unending.
p. 123IF WE SHOULD MEET HIM Now what were the words of Jesus,
And what would He pause and say,
If we were to meet in home or street
The Lord of the world to-day?
Oh, I think He would pause and say,
‘Go on with your chosen labour;
Speak only good of your neighbour;
Widen your farms, and lay down your arms,
Or dig up the soil with each sabre.’
Now what were the answer of Jesus
If we should ask for a creed
To carry us straight through the wonderful gate
When soul from body is freed? ”

“ Reprinted 1915, 1918, 1919
p. vCONTENTS p. 1WAR p. 3GREATER 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 ”