To Ella Wheeler Wilcox*

“Don’t look for the flaws as you go through life”

     One day through the press came ringing;

I stopped in my glee and looked to see

     Who did such beautiful singing.

“This meanest not me,” said I half aloud,

     As I drank in the truth of the poet;

But e’re I was through – “yes yes, it is you

     My good fellow, only you but just know it.

Ah, thank you, noble friend of man

     For sending this timely warning;

‘Twill be like a picture sweet and fair

     The walls of my heart adorning.

*See her poem “As You Go Through Life”, from N.Y. Independent.

c. Aug. 3, 1891

                 Original crossed out.

 Ella Wheeler Wilcox (November 5, 1850 – October 30, 1919) was an American author and poet. Her best-known work was Poems of Passion. Her most enduring work was "Solitude", which contains the lines, "Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone". Her autobiography, The Worlds and I, was published in 1918, a year before her death.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ella_Wheeler_Wilcox

Don’t look for the flaws as you go through life;
And even when you find them,
It is wise and kind to be somewhat blind
And look for the virtue behind them.
For the cloudiest night has a hint of light
Somewhere in its shadows hiding;
It is better by far to hunt for a star,
Than the spots on the sun abiding.

The current of life runs ever away
To the bosom of God’s great ocean.
Don’t set your force ‘gainst the river’s course
And think to alter its motion.
Don’t waste a curse on the universe –
Remember it lived before you.
Don’t butt at the storm with your puny form,
But bend and let it go o’er you.

The world will never adjust itself
To suit your whims to the letter.
Some things must go wrong your whole life long,
And the sooner you know it the better.
It is folly to fight with the Infinite,
And go under at last in the wrestle;
The wiser man shapes into God’s plan
As water shapes into a vessel. 

Ella Wheeler Wilcox