Yesterdays

Transcribed from the 1910 Gay and Hancock edition David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
by ELLA WHEELER WILCOX
GAY AND HANCOCK, LTD. 12 & 13, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN LONDON 1910
CONTENTS
Foreword An Old Heart Warp and Woof So Long If I could only weep Why should we sigh A wakeful night If one should dive deep Two No comfort It does not matter The under-tone Worth living More fortunate He will not come Worn out Rondeau Trifles Courage The other Mad Which Love’s burial Incomplete On rainy days Geraldine Only in dreams Circumstance Simple creeds The bridal eve Good night No place Found A man’s reverie When my sweet lady sings Spectres Only a line Parting Estranged Before and after An empty crib The arrival Go back Why I love her Discontent A dream The night New Year Reverie The law Spirit of a Great Control Noon The search A man’s good-bye At the hop Met Returned birds A crushed leaf A curious story Jenny Lind Life’s key Bridge of prayer New year Deceitful calm Un Rencontre Burned out Only a glove Reminders A dirge Not anchored The new love An east wind Cheating time Only a slight flirtation What the rain saw After Our petty cares The ship and the boat Come near A suggestion A fisherman’s baby Content and happiness The Cusine I wonder why A woman’s hand Presentiment Two rooms Three at the opera A strain of music Smoke An autumn day Wishes The play As we look back Why Listen Together One night Lost nation The captive No song Two friends I didn’t think A burial Their faces The lullaby Mirage Alone in the house An old bouquet At the bridal Best
This little volume might be called ‘Echoes from the land of youthful imaginings’; or ‘Ghosts of old dreams.’ It has been compiled at the request of Messrs. Gay and Hancock (my only authorised publishers in Great Britain), and contains verses written in my early youth, and which never before (with the exception, perhaps, of three or four) have been placed in book form.
Given the poetical temperament, and a lonely environment, with few distractions, youthful imagination is sure to express itself in mournful wails and despairing moans. Such wails and moans will be found to excess in this little book, and will serve to show better than any amount of common-sense reasoning, how fleeting are the sorrows of youth, and how slight the foundation on which the young build towers of despair.