Transcribed from the 1913 Gay and Hancock edition by DavidPrice,
POEMS OF PROGRESS
AND
NEW THOUGHT PASTELS
BY
ELLA WHEELER WILCOX
GAY AND HANCOCK, LTD.
12 AND 13HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN
LONDON
1913
[All rights reserved]
p. ivAny edition of my poems published in Englandby any firm except Messrs. Gay and Hancock is pirated and notauthentic.
ELLA WHEELER WILCOX.
April 12, 1910.
p.vPREFACE
LOVE’S LANGUAGE
When silence flees before the voice of Love,
Of what expression does that god approve?
Is dulcet song or flowing verse his choice,
Or stately prose, made regal by his voice?
Speaks Love in couplets, or in epics grand?
And is Love humble, or does he command?
There is no language that Love does notspeak:
To-day commanding and to-morrow meek,
One hour laconic and the next verbose,
With hope triumphant and with doubt morose,
His varying moods all forms of speech employ.
To give expression to his painful joy,
p.viTo voice the phases of his joyful pain,
He rings the changes on the poet’s strain.
Yet not in epic, epigram or verse
Can Love the passion of his heart rehearse.
All speech, all language, is inadequate,
There are no words with Love commensurate.
p.viiCONTENTS
| PAGE |
Preface | |
The Land Between | |
Love’s Mirage | |
The Need of the World | |
The Gulf Stream | |
Remembered | |
Helen of Troy | |
Lais when Young | |
Lais when Old |