Poems of Experience

Transcribed from the 1917 Gay and Hancock edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
ELLA WHEELER WILCOX
GAY AND HANCOCK, LTD.
12 AND 13 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN
LONDON
1917
Published 1910
Reprinted 1911, 1912, 1913, 1915, 1916, 1917
Any edition of my poems published in England by any firm except Messrs. Gay and Hancock is pirated and not authentic.
ELLA WHEELER WILCOX.
April 12, 1910.
I held the golden vessel of my soul And prayed that God would fill it from on high. Day after day the importuning cry Grew stronger—grew, a heaven-accusing dole Because no sacred waters laved my bowl. ‘So full the fountain, Lord, wouldst Thou deny The little needed for a soul’s supply? I ask but this small portion of Thy whole.’ Then from the vast invisible Somewhere, A voice, as one love-authorised by Him, Spake, and the tumult of my heart was stilled. ‘Who wants the waters must the bowl prepare; Pour out the self, that chokes it to the brim, But emptied vessels, from the source are filled.’