The Kingdom of Love

Transcribed from the 1909 Gay and Hancock edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
by ELLA WHEELER WILCOX
GAY AND HANCOCK, LTD. 12 & 13, HENRIETTA STREET, STRAND LONDON 1909
Contents:
The Kingdom Of Love Meg’s Curse Solitude The Gossips Platonic Grandpa’s Christmas After The Engagement A Holiday False Two Sinners The Phantom Ball Words And Thoughts Wanted—A Little Girl The Suicide “Now I Lay Me” The Messenger A Servian Legend Peek-A-Boo The Falling Of Thrones Her Last Letter The Princess’s Finger-Nail A Baby In The House The Foolish Elm Robin’s Mistake New Year Resolve What We Want Breaking The Day In Two The Rape Of The Mist The Two Glasses The Maniac What Is Flirtation? Husband And Wife How Does Love Speak? Reincarnation As You Go Through Life How Salvator Won The Watcher How Will It Be? Memory’s River Love’s Way A Man’s Last Love The Lady And The Dame Confession A Married Coquette Forbidden Speech The Summer Girl The Ghost The Signboard A Man’s Repentance Aristarchus Dell And I About May Vanity Fair The Giddy Girl A Girl’s Autumn Reverie His Youth Under The Sheet A Pin The Coming Man
In the dawn of the day when the sea and the earth Reflected the sunrise above, I set forth with a heart full of courage and mirth To seek for the Kingdom of Love. I asked of a Poet I met on the way Which cross-road would lead me aright; And he said “Follow me, and ere long you shall see Its glittering turrets of light.”
And soon in the distance a city shone fair. “Look yonder,” he said; “How it gleams!” But alas! for the hopes that were doomed to despair, It was only the “Kingdom of Dreams.” Then the next man I asked was a gay Cavalier, And he said: “Follow me, follow me”; And with laughter and song we went speeding along By the shores of Life’s beautiful sea.
Then we came to a valley more tropical far Than the wonderful vale of Cashmere, And I saw from a bower a face like a flower Smile out on the gay Cavalier; And he said: “We have come to humanity’s goal: Here love and delight are intense.” But alas and alas! for the hopes of my soul— It was only the “Kingdom of Sense.”