POEMS OF OPTIMISM

BY

ELLA WHEELER WILCOX

GAY AND HANCOCK, LTD.

34 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN

LONDON

1919

All rights reserved

p. ivN.B.—The only volumes of my Poems issued with my approval in the British Empire are published by Messrs. Gay & Hancock.

ELLA WHEELER WILCOX

Published 1913

Reprinted 1915, 1918, 1919

p. vCONTENTS

PAGE

WAR

Greater Britain

3

Belgium

5

Knitting

6

Mobilisation

8

Neutral

10

A book for the King

11

The men-made gods

12

The Ghosts

14

The poet’s theme

16

Europe

18

After

19

The peace angel

20

Peace should not come

21

MISCELLANEOUS

The Winds of Fate

25

Beauty

26

The invisible helpers

29

To the women of Australia

31

Replies

33

p. viEarth bound

35

A successful man

37

Unsatisfied

39

Separation

42

To the teachers of the young

46

Beauty making

47

On Avon’s breast I saw a stately swan

49

The little go-cart

50

I am running forth to meet you

52

Martyrs of peace

54

Home

56

The eternal now

58

If I were a man, a young man

59

We must send them out to play

62

Protest

65

Reward

67

This is my task

68

The statue

70

Behold the earth

72

What they saw

74

His last letter

77

A dialogue

81

A wish

84

Justice

86

An old song

87

Oh, poor, sick world

90

Praise day

93

Interlude

95

p. viiThe land of the gone-away-souls

96

The harp’s song

98

The pendulum

99

An old-fashioned type

101

The sword

104

Love and the seasons

105

A naughty little comet

107

The last dance

110

A vagabond mind

112

My flower room

114

My faith

117

Arrow and bow

119

If we should meet him

123

Faith

125

The secret of prayer

127

The answer

129

A vision

131

The second coming

133

p. 1WAR

p. 3GREATER BRITAIN

Our hearts were not set on fighting, We did not pant for the fray, And whatever wrongs need righting, We would not have met that way. But the way that has opened before us Leads on thro’ a blood-red field; And we swear by the great God o’er us, We will die, but we will not yield.

The battle is not of our making, And war was never our plan; Yet, all that is sweet forsaking, We march to it, man by man. It is either to smite, or be smitten, There’s no other choice to-day; And we live, as befits the Briton, Or we die, as the Briton may.

p. 4We were not fashioned for cages, Or to feed from a keeper’s hand; Our strength which has grown thro’ ages Is the strength of a slave-free land. We cannot kneel down to a master, To our God alone can we pray; And we stand in this world disaster, To fight, like a lion at bay.

p. 5BELGIUM

Ruined? destroyed? Ah, no; though blood in rivers ran Down all her ancient streets; though treasures manifold Love-wrought, Time-mellowed, and beyond the price of gold Are lost, yet Belgium’s star shines still in God’s vast plan.

Rarely have Kings been great, since kingdoms first began; Rarely have great kings been great men, when all was told. But, by the lighted torch in mailèd hands, behold, Immortal Belgium’s immortal king, and Man.

p. 6KNITTING

At the concert and the play Everywhere you see them sitting, Knitting, knitting. Women who the other day Thought of nothing but their frocks Or their jewels or their locks, Women who have lived for pleasure, Who have known no work but leisure, Now are knitting, knitting, knitting For the soldiers over there.

On the trains and on the ships With a diligence befitting, They are knitting. Some with smiles upon their lips, Some with manners debonair, Some with earnest look and air. But each heart in its own fashion, Weaves in pity and compassion In their knitting, knitting, knitting For the soldiers over there.

p. 7Hurried women to and fro From their homes to labour flitting, Knitting, knitting, Busy handed come and go. Broken bits of time they spare, Just to feel they do their share, Just to keep life’s sense of beauty In the doing of a duty, They are knitting, knitting, knitting For the soldiers over there.

p. 8MOBILISATION

Oh the Kings of earth have mobilised their men. See them moving, valour proving, To the fields of glory going, Banners flowing, bugles blowing, Every one a mother’s son, Brave with uniform and gun, Keeping step with easy swing, Yes, with easy step and light marching onward to the fight, Just to please the warlike fancy of a King; Who has mobilised his army for the strife.

Oh the King of Death has mobilised his men. See the hearses huge and black How they rumble down the track; With their coffins filled with dead, Filled with men who fought and bled; p. 9Now from fields of glory coming To the sound of muffled drumming They are lying still and white, But the Kings have had their fight; Death has mobilised his army for the grave.

p. 10NEUTRAL

That pale word ‘Neutral’ sits becomingly On lips of weaklings. But the men whose brains Find fuel in their blood, the men whose minds Hold sympathetic converse with their hearts, Such men are never neutral. That word stands Unsexed and impotent in Realms of Speech. When mighty problems face a startled world No virile man is neutral. Right or wrong His thoughts go forth, assertive, unafraid To stand by his convictions, and to do Their part in shaping issues to an end. Silence may guard the door of useless words, At dictate of Discretion; but to stand Without opinions in a world which needs Constructive thinking, is a coward’s part.

p. 11A BOOK FOR THE KING

A book has been made for the King, A book of beauty and art; To the good king’s eyes A smile shall rise Hiding the ache in his heart— Hiding the hurt and the grief As he turns it, leaf by leaf.

A book has been made for the King, A book of blood and of blight; To the Great King’s eyes A look shall rise That will blast and wither and smite— Yes, smite with a just God’s rage, As He turns it, page by page.

p. 12THE MEN-MADE GODS

Said the Kaiser’s god to the god of the Czar: ‘Hark, hark, how my people pray. Their faith, methinks, is greater by far Than all the faiths of the others are; They know I will help them slay.’

Said the god of the Czar: ‘My people call In a medley of tongues; they know I will lend my strength to them one and all. Wherever they fight their foes shall fall Like grass where the mowers go.’

Then the god of the Gauls spoke out of a cloud To the god of the King nearby: ‘Our people pray, tho’ they pray not loud; They ask for courage to slaughter a crowd, And to laugh, tho’ themselves may die.’

p. 13And far out into the heart of Space Where a lonely pathway crept, Up over the stars, to a secret place, Where no light shone but the light of His face, Christ covered His eyes and wept.

p. 14THE GHOSTS

There was no wind, and yet the air Seemed suddenly astir; There were no forms, and yet all space Seemed thronged with growing hosts. They came from Where, and from Nowhere, Like phantoms as they were; They came from many a land and place— The ghosts, the ghosts, the ghosts.

And some were white, and some were grey, And some were red as blood— Those ghosts of men who met their death Upon the field of war. Against the skies of fading day, Like banks of cloud they stood; And each wraith asked another wraith, ‘What were we fighting for?’

p. 15One said, ‘I was my mother’s all; And she was old and blind.’ Another, ‘Back on earth, my wife And week-old baby lie.’ Another, ‘At the bugle’s call, I left my bride behind; Love made so beautiful my life I could not bear to die.’

In voices like the winds that moan Among pine trees at night, They whispered long, the newly dead, While listening stars came out. ‘We wonder if the cause is known, And if the war was right, That killed us in our prime,’ they said, ‘And what it was about.’

They came in throngs that filled all space— Those whispering phantom hosts; They came from many a land and place, The ghosts, the ghosts, the ghosts.

p. 16THE POET’S THEME

Why should the poet of these pregnant times Be asked to sing of war’s unholy crimes?

To laud and eulogise the trade which thrives On horrid holocausts of human lives?

Man was a fighting beast when earth was young, And war the only theme when Homer sung.

’Twixt might and might the equal contest lay: Not so the battles of our modern day.

Too often now the conquering hero struts, A Gulliver among the Lilliputs.

Success no longer rests on skill or fate, But on the movements of a syndicate.

Of old, men fought and deemed it right and just, To-day the warrior fights because he must;

p. 17And in his secret soul feels shame because He desecrates the higher manhood’s laws.

Oh, there are worthier themes for poet’s pen In this great hour than bloody deeds of men:

The rights of many—not the worth of one— The coming issues, not the battle done;

The awful opulence and awful need— The rise of brotherhood—the fall of greed;

The soul of man replete with God’s own force, The call ‘to heights,’ and not the cry ‘to horse.’

Are there not better themes in this great age For pen of poet, or for voice of sage,

Than those old tales of killing? Song is dumb Only that greater song in time may come.

When comes the bard, he whom the world waits for, He will not sing of War.

p. 18EUROPE

Little lads and grandsires, Women old with care; But all the men are dying men Or dead men over there.

No one stops to dig graves; Who has time to spare? The dead men, the dead men How the dead men stare.

Kings are out a-hunting— Oh, the sport is rare; With dying men and dead men Falling everywhere.

Life for lads and grandsires; Spoils for kings to share; And dead men, dead men, Dead men everywhere.

p. 19AFTER

Over the din of battle, Over the cannons’ rattle, Over the strident voices of men and their dying groans, I hear the falling of thrones.

Out of the wild disorder That spreads from border to border, I see a new world rising from ashes of ancient towns; And the Rulers wear no crowns.

Over the blood-charged water, Over the fields of slaughter, Down to the hidden vaults of Time, where lie the worn-out things I see the passing of Kings.

p. 20THE PEACE ANGEL

Angel of Peace, the hounds of war, Unleashed, are all abroad, And war’s foul trade again is made Man’s leading aim in life. Blood dyes the billow and the sod; The very winds are rife With tales of slaughter. Angel, pray, What can we do or think or say In times like these? ‘Child, think of God!’

‘Before this little speck in space Called Earth with light was shod, Great chains and tiers of splendid spheres Were fashioned by His hand. Be thine the part to love and laud, Nor seek to understand. Go lift thine eyes from death-charged guns To one who made a billion suns; And trust and wait. Child, dwell on God!’

p. 21PEACE SHOULD NOT COME

Peace should not come along this foul, earth way. Peace should not come, until we cleanse the path. God waited for us; now in awful wrath He pours the blood of men out day by day To purify the highroad for her feet. Why, what would Peace do, in a world where hearts Are filled with thoughts like poison-pointed darts? It were not meet, surely it were not meet For Peace to come, and with her white robes hide These industries of death—these guns and swords,— These uniformed, hate-filled, destructive hordes,— These hideous things, that are each nation’s pride. So long as men believe in armèd might Let arms be brandished. Let not Peace be sought Until the race-heart empties out all thought Of blows and blood, as arguments for Right. p. 22The world has never had enough of war, Else war were not. Now let the monster stand, Until he slays himself with his own hand; Though no man knows what he is fighting for. Then in the place where wicked cannons stood Let Peace erect her shrine of Brotherhood.

p. 23MISCELLANEOUS

p. 25THE WINDS OF FATE

One ship drives east and another drives west, With the self-same winds that blow, ’Tis the set of the sails And not the gales That tell them the way to go. Like the winds of the sea are the winds of fate, As we voyage along through life, ’Tis the set of the soul That decides its goal And not the calm or the strife.

p. 26BEAUTY

The search for beauty is the search for God Who is All Beauty. He who seeks shall find. And all along the paths my feet have trod, I have sought hungrily with heart and mind, And open eyes for beauty, everywhere. Lo! I have found the world is very fair. The search for beauty is the search for God.

Beauty was first revealed to me by stars, Before I saw it in my mother’s eyes, Or, seeing, sensed it beauty, I was stirred To awe and wonder by those orbs of light All palpitant against empurpled skies. They spoke a language to my childish heart Of mystery and splendour, and of space, Friendly with gracious, unseen presences. Beauty was first revealed to me by stars.

p. 27Sunsets enlarged the meaning of the word. There was a window looking to the west; Beyond it, wide Wisconsin fields of grain, And then a hill, whereon white flocks of clouds Would gather in the afternoon to rest. And when the sun went down behind that hill What scenes of glory spread before my sight; What beauty—beauty, absolute, supreme! Sunsets enlarged the meaning of that word.

Clover in blossom, red and honey-sweet, In summer billowed like a crimson sea Across the meadow lands. One day, I stood Breast-high amidst its waves, and heard the hum Of myriad bees, that had gone mad like me With fragrance and with beauty. Over us, A loving sun smiled from a cloudless sky, While a bold breeze kissed lightly as it passed, Clover in blossom, red and honey-sweet.

Autumn spoke loudly of the beautiful. And in the gallery of Nature hung Colossal pictures hard against the sky, Set forests gorgeous with a hundred hues; And with each morning, some new wonder flung p. 28Before the startled world; some daring shade, Some strange, new scheme of colour and of form. Autumn spoke loudly of the beautiful.

Winter, though rude, is delicate in art— More delicate than Summer or than fall (Even as rugged man is more refined In vital things than woman). Winter’s touch On Nature seemed most beautiful of all— That evanescent beauty of the frost On window panes; of clean, fresh, fallen snow; Of white, white sunlight on the ice-draped trees. Winter, though rude, is delicate in art.

Morning! The word itself is beautiful, And the young hours have many gifts to give That feed the soul with beauty. He who keeps His days for labour and his nights for sleep Wakes conscious of the joy it is to live, And brings from that mysterious Land of Dreams A sense of beauty that illumines earth. Morning! The word itself is beautiful.

The search for beauty is the search for God.

p. 29THE INVISIBLE HELPERS

There are, there are Invisible Great Helpers of the race. Across unatlased continents of space, From star to star. In answer to some soul’s imperious need, They speed, they speed.

When the earth-loving young are forced to stand Upon the border of the Unknown Land, They come, they come—those angels who have trod The altitudes of God, And to the trembling heart Their strength impart. Have you not seen the delicate young maid, Filled with the joy of life in her fair dawn, Look in the face of death, all unafraid, And smilingly pass on?

p. 30This is not human strength; not even faith Has such large confidence in such an hour. It is a power Supplied by beings who have conquered death. Floating from sphere to sphere They hover near The souls that need the courage they can give.

This is no vision of a dreamer’s mind. Though we are blind They live, they live, Filling all space— Invisible Great Helpers of the race.

p. 31TO THE WOMEN OF AUSTRALIA

A toast to the splendid daughters Of the New World over the waters, A world that is great as new; Daughters of brave old races, Daughters of heights and spaces, Broad seas and broad earth places— Hail to your land and you!

The sun and the winds have fed you; The width of your world has led you Out into the larger view; Strong with a strength that is tender, Bright with a primal splendour, Homage and praise we render— Hail to your land and you!

Sisters and daughters and mothers, Standing abreast with your brothers, Working for things that are true; p. 32Thinking and doing and daring, Giving, receiving, and sharing, Earning the crowns you are wearing— Hail to your land and you!

p. 33REPLIES

You have lived long and learned the secret of life, O Seer! Tell me what are the best three things to seek— The best three things for a man to seek on earth?

The best three things for a man to seek, O Son! are these: Reverence for that great Source from whence he came; Work for the world wherein he finds himself; And knowledge of the Realm toward which he goes.

What are the best three things to love on earth, O Seer! What are the best three things for a man to love?

The best three things for a man to love, O Son! are these: Labour which keeps his forces all in action; p. 34A home wherein no evil thing may enter; And a loving woman with God in her heart.

What are the three great sins to shun, O Seer!— What are the three great sins for a man to shun?

The three great sins for a man to shun, O Son! are these: A thought which soils the heart from whence it goes; An action that can harm a living thing; And undeveloped energies of mind.

What are the worst three things to fear, O Seer!— What are the worst three things for a man to fear?

The worst three things for man to fear, O Son! are these: Doubt and suspicion in a young child’s eyes; Accusing shame upon a woman’s face; And in himself no consciousness of God.

p. 35EARTH BOUND

New paradise, and groom and bride; The world was all their own; Her heart swelled full of love and pride; Yet were they quite alone? ‘Now how is it, oh how is it, and why is it’ (in fear All silent to herself she spake) ‘that something strange seems here?’

Along the garden paths they walked— The moon was at its height— And lover-wise they strolled and talked, But something was not right. And ‘Who is that, now who is that, oh who is that,’ quoth she, (All silent in her heart she spake) ‘that seems to follow me?’

He drew her closer to his side; She felt his lingering kiss; And yet a shadow seemed to glide Between her heart and his. p. 36And ‘What is that, now what is that, oh what is that,’ she said, (All silent to herself she spake) ‘that minds me of the dead?’

They wandered back by beds of bloom; They climbed a winding stair; They crossed the threshold of their room, But something waited there. ‘Now who is this, and what is this, and where is this,’ she cried, (All silent was the cry she made) ‘that comes to haunt and hide?’

Wide-eyed she lay, the while he slept; She could not name her fear. But something from her bedside crept Just as the dawn drew near, (She did not know, she could not know—how could she know?—who came To haunt the home of one whose hand had dug her grave of shame).

p. 37A SUCCESSFUL MAN

There was a man who killed a loving maid In some mad mood of passion; and he paid The price, upon a scaffold. Now his name Stands only as a synonym for shame. There was another man, who took to wife A loving woman. She was full of life, Of hope, and aspirations; and her pride Clothed her like some rich mantle.

First, the wide Glad stream of life that through her veins had sway He dammed by rocks, cast in it, day by day. Her flag of hope, flung gaily to the world, He placed half mast, and then hauled down, and furled. The aspirations, breathing in each word, By subtle ridicule, were made absurd:

p. 38The delicate fine mantle of her pride, With rude unfeeling hands, was wrenched aside: And by mean avarice, or vulgar show, Her quivering woman’s heart was made to know That she was but a chattel, bought to fill Whatever niche might please the buyer’s will.

So she was murdered, while the slow years went. And her assassin, honoured, opulent, Lived with no punishment, or social ban! ‘A good provider, a successful man.’

p. 39UNSATISFIED

The bird flies home to its young; The flower folds its leaves about an opening bud; And in my neighbour’s house there is the cry of a child. I close my window that I need not hear.