The Collected poems of Ella Wheeler Wilcox. London: L.B.Hill, 1924  xx p., 1 L., 517 p. 20 cm.

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Oh, you who read some song
   that I have sung --
What know you of the soul
   from whence it sprung?
Dost dream the poet ever
   speaks aloud
His secret thought unto the
   listening crowd?
Go take the murmuring sea-
   shell from the shore --
You have its shape, its colour
   -- and no more.
It tells not one of those vast
   mysteries
That lie beneath the surface
   of the seas.
Our songs are shells, cast
   out by waves of thought;
Here, take them at your
   pleasure; but think not
You've seen beneath the
   surface of the waves,
Where lie our ship-wrecks,
   and our coral caves.

INTRODUCTORY POEM

I step across the mystic border-land
And look upon the wonder-world of Art,
How beautiful, how beautiful its hills!
And all its valleys, how surpassing fair!

The winding paths that lead up to the heights
Are polished by the footsteps of the great.
The mountain-peaks stand very near to God:
The chosen few whose feet have trod thereon
Have talked with Him, and with the angels walked.

Here are no sounds of discord, no profane
Or senseless gossip of unworthy things--
Only the songs of chisels and of pens,
Of busy brushes, and ecstatic strains
Of souls surcharged with music most divine.
Here is no idle sorrow, no poor grief
For any day or object left behind--
For time is counted precious, and herein
Is such complete abandonment of Self
That tears turn into rainbows, and enhance
The beauty of the land where all is fair.

Awed and afraid I cross the border-land.
Oh, who am I, that I dare enter here
Where the great artists of the world have trod--
The genius-crowned aristocrats of Earth?
Only the singer of a little song;
Yet loving Art with such a mighty love
I hold it greater to have won a place
Just on the fair land's edge, to make my grave,
Than in the outer world of greed and gain
To sit upon a royal throne and reign.

Contents:

1. Absence
2. Achievement
3. Actor, The
4. Ad Finem
5. Advice
6. AEsthetic
7. Afternoon, An
8. After the Battles are over
9. All for Me
10. All Mad
11. And They are Dumb
12. Angel or Demon
13. Answer, An
14. Answer, An
15. Answered
16. Answered Prayers
17. Applause
18. Aquileia
19. Art and Heart
20. Art and Love
21. Artist and Man
22. Artist's Life
23. As by Fire
24. At an Old Drawer
25. At Eleusis
26. At the Window
27. Attraction
28. Baby in the House, A
29. Babyland
30. Beautiful Blue Danube, The
31. Beautiful Land of Nod, The
32. Belief
33. Belle's Soliloquy, The
34. Be not Weary
35. Beppo
36. Beyond
37. Bird of Hope
38. Birth of the Opal, The
39. Blase'
40. Bleak Weather
41. Bohemia
42. Bound and Free
43. Burdened
44. But One
45. By-and-Bye
46. Carlos
47. Change
48. Change, The
49. Christian's New-Year Prayer, The
50. City, The
51. Common Lot, The
52. Communism
53. Comrades
54. Constancy
55. Contentment
56. Conversion
57. Conversion
58. Coquette, The
59. Courage
60. Creation
61. Creed, The
62. Daft
63. Dawn
64. Deathless
65. Delilah
66. Denied
67. Desire
68. Desolation
69. Difference, The
70. Disappointed, The
71. Distrust
72. Dream, A
73. Dreams
74. Drought
75. Duet, The
76. Dust-Sealed
77. Earnestness
78. Engine, The
79. Entre-Acte Reveries
80. Fable, A
81. Fading
82. Fading
83. Faith
84. Farewell, The
85. Farewell of Clarimonde, The
86. Fatal Impress, A
87. Fault of the Age, The
88. Finis
89. Fishing
90. Fleeing Away
91. Floods
92. Foes
93. Friendship
94. Friendship after Love
95. From the Grave
96. Gethsemane
97. Ghosts
98. Girl's Faith, A
99. God's Measure
100. Going Away
101. Golden Day, A
102. Gracia
103. Grey Mood, A
104. Guerdon
105. Guilo
106. Half Fledged
107. Helena
108. Her Love
109. Her Reverie
110. Hidden Gems
111. I Dream
112. I Told You
113. I will be Worthy of It
114. Idler's Song
115. If
116. If
117. If I Should Die
118. Illogical
119. Impatience
120. Immortality
121. In Faith
122. In the Crowd
123. In the Garden
124. In the Long Run
125. In the Night
126. Inborn
127. Independence Ode
128. Individuality
129. Inevitable
130. Instructor, The
131. Into Space
132. Is It Done?
133. Isaura
134. It Might Have Been
135. Joy
136. Keep Out the Past
137. King and Siren, The
138. Kingdom of Love, The
139. La Mort d'Amour
140. Lady of Tears, The
141. Land of Content, The
142. Law, The
143. Lay it Away
144. Lean Down
145. Let Me Lean Hard
146. Let Them Go
147. Leudemanns-on-the-River
148. Life
149. Life
150. Life and I
151. Life Is Too Short
152. Life's Journey
153. Limitless
154. Lippo
155. Listen
156. Little Bird, The
157. Little Blue Hood
158. Little Queen
159. Lost
160. Lost Garden, The
161. Lost Land, The
162. Love
163. Love Is Enough
164. Love Much
165. Love-Song
166. Love will Wane
167. Love's Burial
168. Love's Coming
169. Love's Language
170. Love's Sleep
171. Maiden's Secret, A
172. March Snow, A
173. Master Hand, The
174. Maurine
175. Meeting, A
176. Midsummer
177. Misalliance
178. Mockery
179. Momus, God of Laughter
180. Mother-in-Law, The
181. Mother's Loss
182. Musicians, The
183. My Friend
184. My Grave
185. My Heritage
186. My Home
187. My Ship
188. My Vision
189. Necessity
190. New and Old
191. New and Old Centuries, The
192. New Year
193. New Year
194. Night
195. No Classes!
196. No Spring
197. Noblesse Oblige
198. Not Quite the Same
199. Nothing but Stones
200. Nothing New
201. Nothing Remains
202. Now
203. Ocean of Song, The
204. Old and New
205. Old Comrade, An
206. Old Fan, An
207. Old Moon in the New Moon's Arms, The
208. Old Stage Queen, The
209. One of Us Two
210. One Woman's Plea
211. Only a Simple Rhyme
212. Only Dreams
213. Optimism
214. Our Blessings
215. Over the Alley
216. Over the Banisters
217. Over the May Hill
218. Pain's Proof
219. Past, The
220. Peace and Love
221. Peace of the Goal
222. Penalty
223. Perfectness
224. Perished
225. Philosophy
226. Picture, A
227. Pin, A
228. Platonic
229. Plea, A
230. Plea to Science
231. Poems of the Week
232. Possession
233. Prayer
234. Presumption
235. Progress
236. Punished, The
237. Queries
238. Recompense
239. Red Carnations
240. Refuted
241. Regret
242. Reminiscence, A
243. Resolve
244. Resolve
245. Respite
246. Response
247. Reunited
248. River and Sea
249. River and Sea
250. Romney
251. Room Beneath the Rafters, The
252. Saddest Hour, The
253. Sailor's Wife, A
254. Sculptor, A
255. Searching
256. Sea-Breeze and the Scarf, The
257. Secret Thoughts
258. Secrets
259. Show Me the Way
260. Sing to Me
261. Sleep and Death
262. Slipping Away
263. Snowed Under
264. So Long in Coming
265. Solitude
266. Song
267. Song
268. Song, A
269. Song of Life, A
270. Song of the Spirit
271. Sonnet
272. Sonnet, The
273. Soul's Farewell to the Body, The
274. South, The
275. Speech of Silence, The
276. Story, The
277. Summer Song
278. Summons, The
279. Sunset
280. Sunshine and Shadow
281. Surrender
282. Sweet Danger
283. There Comes a Time
284. Thimble Islands
285. Three and One
286. Three-fold
287. Through Dim Eyes
288. Through Tears
289. Through the Valley
290. Tiger, The
291. Time and Love
292. Tired
293. To Marry or Not to Marry?
294. To the West
295. Trio, The
296. True Culture
297. True Knight, The
298. Twilight Thoughts
299. Twin-born
300. Two
301. Two Glasses, The
302. Two Loves
303. Two Prayers
304. Two Sat Down
305. Two Sinners
306. Two Sunsets
307. Unattained, The
308. Unrest
309. Until the Night
310. Upon the Sand
311. Uselessness
312. Voluptuary, The
313. Waif, A
314. Waltz-Quadrille, A
315. Warning
316. Way of It, The
317. What Gain?
318. What Happens
319. What Love Is
320. What Shall We Do?
321. What we Need
322. Whatever is--is Best
323. Wheel of the Breast, The
324. When
325. When I Am Dead
326. When You Go Away
327. Wherefore
328. Wild Blue Bells, The
329. Will
330. Winter Rain
331. Wishes for a Little Girl
332. World, The
333. Worldly Wisdom
334. Woman
335. Year, The
336. Year Outgrows the Spring, The
337. You Will Forget Me