Sunday, August 2, 2015

To Ella Wheeler Wilcox



Excuse me Ella but I am a feller
     Who know a good thing when he sees it;
Thet poem you’ve written on which I am smitten,
     Is so tarnally good I could squeeze it.
It’s extra good preachin’, thet poem; it’s reachin’
     “As you go through life,” is its title;
It’s turned my whole bein’ into nobler seein’,
     An’ my thanks are expressed in this homely indital.



Aug. 2, 1892
B. Courier,
Nov. 10, ‘95






 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.
picture: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-ella-wheeler-wilcox-1854-1919-author-everett.html


       As You Go Through Life

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



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