Poems of Progress and New Thought Pastels

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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.

PREFACE
LOVE’S LANGUAGE

When silence flees before the voice of Love,
Of what expression does that god approve?
Is dulcet song or flowing verse his choice,
Or stately prose, made regal by his voice?
Speaks Love in couplets, or in epics grand?
And is Love humble, or does he command?

There is no language that Love does not speak:
To-day commanding and to-morrow meek,
One hour laconic and the next verbose,
With hope triumphant and with doubt morose,
His varying moods all forms of speech employ.
To give expression to his painful joy,

To voice the phases of his joyful pain,
He rings the changes on the poet’s strain.
Yet not in epic, epigram or verse
Can Love the passion of his heart rehearse.
All speech, all language, is inadequate,
There are no words with Love commensurate.

CONTENTS

	PAGE
Preface	[v]
The Land Between	[1]
Love’s Mirage	[3]
The Need of the World	[4]
The Gulf Stream	[7]
Remembered	[8]
Helen of Troy	[9]
Lais when Young	[11]
Lais when Old	[12]
Existence	[13]
Holiday Songs	[15]
Astrolabius	[18]
Completion	[21]
Sleep’s Treachery	[24]
Art versus Cupid	[25]
The Revolt of Vashti	[33]
The Choosing of Esther	[37]
Honeymoon Scene	[42]
The Cost	[49]
The Voice	[52]
God’s Answer	[55]
The Edict of the Sex	[56]
The World-child	[59]
The Heights	[61]
On seeing ‘The House of Julia’ atHerculaneum	[63]
A Prayer	[64]
What is Right Living?	[66]
Justice	[67]
Time’s Gaze	[68]
The Worker and the Work	[70]
Art thou Alive?	[72]
To-day	[74]
The Ladder	[76]
Who is a Christian?	[78]
The Goal	[80]
The Spur	[82]
Awakened!	[84]
Shadows	[86]
The New Commandment	[88]
Summer Dreams	[90]
The Breaking of Chains	[92]
December	[94]
‘The Way’	[96]
The Leader to be	[98]
The Greater Love	[100]
Thank God for Life	[102]
Time Enough	[104]
New Year’s Day	[106]
Life is a Privilege	[108]
In an Old Art Gallery	[110]
True Brotherhood	[111]
The Decadent	[112]
Lord, speak again	[113]
My Heaven	[116]
Life	[118]
God’s Kin	[120]
Conquest	[121]
The Statue	[122]
Sirius	[124]
At Fontainebleau	[128]
The Masquerade	[129]
Sympathy	[131]
Intermediary	[133]
Life’s Car	[135]
Opportunity	[135]
The Age of Motored Things	[136]
New Year	[136]
Disarmament	[140]
The Call	[141]
A Little Song	[142]
NEW THOUGHTPASTELS
A Dialogue	[145]
The Weed	[147]
Strength	[148]
Affirm	[149]
The Chosen	[150]
The Nameless	[152]
The Word	[153]
Assistance	[155]
‘Credulity’	[156]
Consciousness	[157]
The Structure	[158]
Our Souls	[159]
The Law	[160]
Knowledge	[161]
Give	[163]
Perfection	[164]
Fear	[165]
The Way	[166]
Understood	[167]
His Mansion	[168]
Effect	[169]
Three Things	[170]
Obstacles	[171]
Prayer	[172]
Climbing	[173]
‘There is no Death, There are no Dead’	[174]
Realisation	[176]

THE LAND BETWEEN