Poems of Experience

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Poems of Experience, by Ella
Wheeler Wilcox (#7 in our series by Ella Wheeler Wilcox)
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Title: Poems of Experience
Author: Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Release Date: February, 2004 [EBook #5170]
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one year ahead of schedule]
[This file was first posted on May 27,
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0. START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, POEMS OF
EXPERIENCE ***
Transcribed from the 1917 Gay and Hancock edition by David Price,
email [email protected]

POEMS OF EXPERIENCE
Contents
The Empty Bowl
Keep Going
A Prayer
The London 'Bobby'

Read at the Benefit of Clara Morris
Two Ghosts
Woman
Battle
Hymn of the Women
Memories
See?
The Purpose
The White
Man
A Moorish Maid
Lincoln
I know not
Interlude

Resurrection
The Voices of the City
If Christ came Questioning

England, Awake!
Be not attached
An Episode
The Voice of the
Voiceless
Time's Defeat
The Hymn of the Republic
The Radiant
Christ
At Bay
The Birth of Jealousy
Summer's Farewell
The
Goal
Christ Crucified
The Trip to Mars
Fiction and Fact

Progress
How the White Rose Came
I look to Science

Appreciation
The Awakening
Most blest is he
Nirvana
Life

Two men
Only be still
Pardoned Out
The Tides
Progression

Acquaintance
Attainment
The tower-room
Father
The new
Hawaiian girl
THE EMPTY BOWL
I held the golden vessel of my soul
And prayed that God would fill it
from on high.
Day after day the importuning cry
Grew
stronger--grew, a heaven-accusing dole
Because no sacred waters
laved my bowl.
'So full the fountain, Lord, wouldst Thou deny
The
little needed for a soul's supply?
I ask but this small portion of Thy
whole.'
Then from the vast invisible Somewhere,
A voice, as one
love-authorised by Him,
Spake, and the tumult of my heart was
stilled.
'Who wants the waters must the bowl prepare;
Pour out the
self, that chokes it to the brim,
But emptied vessels, from the source

are filled.'
KEEP GOING
Is the goal distant, and troubled the road,
And the way long?
And heavy your load?
Then gird up your
courage, and say 'I am strong,'
And keep going.
Is the work weary, and endless the grind
And petty the pay?
Then brace up your mind
And say 'Something
better is coming my way,'
And keep doing.
Is the drink bitter life pours in your cup -
Is the taste gall?
Then smile and look up
And say 'God is with me
whatever befall,'
And keep trusting.
Is the heart heavy with hope long deferred,
And with prayers that seem vain?
Keep saying the word -
And that
which you strive for you yet shall attain.
Keep praying.
A PRAYER
Just as I shape the purport of my thought,
Lord of the Universe, shape
Thou my lot.
Let each ill thought that in my heart may be,
Mould
circumstance and bring ill luck to me.

Until I weed the garden of my mind
From all that is unworthy and
unkind,
Am I not master of my mind, dear Lord?
Then as I THINK,
so must be my reward.
Who sows in weakness, cannot reap in strength,
That which we plant,
we gather in at length.
Great God of Justice, be Thou just to me,

And as my thoughts, so let my future be.
THE LONDON 'BOBBY'
A TRIBUTE TO THE POLICEMEN
OF ENGLAND'S CAPITAL
Here in my cosy corner,
Before a blazing log,
I'm thinking of cold London
Wrapped in its killing fog;
And, like a shining beacon
Above the picture grim,
I see the London 'Bobby,'
And sing my song for him.
I see his stalwart figure,
I see his kindly face,
I hear his helpful answer
At any hour or place.
For, though you seek some by-way
Long miles from his own beat,
He tells you all about it,
And how to find the street.
He looks like some bold Viking,
This king of earth's police -
Yet in his voice lies feeling,
And in his eye lies peace;
He knows and does his duty -

(What higher praise is there?)
And London's lords and paupers
Alike receive his care.
He has a regal bearing,
Yet one that breathes repose;
It is the look and manner
Of one who THINKS and KNOWS.
Oh, men who govern nations,
In old worlds or in new,
Turn to the London 'Bobby'
And learn a thing or two.
READ AT THE BENEFIT
OF CLARA MORRIS

(AMERICA'S GREAT EMOTIONAL ACTRESS)
The Radiant Rulers of Mystic