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]?[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]?[This file was first posted on May 27, 2002]?[Most recently updated: May 27, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
? 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 Regions?Where souls of artists are fitted for birth?Gathered together their lovely legions?And fashioned a woman to shine on earth.
They bathed her in splendour,?They made her tender,?They gave her a nature both sweet and wild;?They gave her emotions like storm-stirred oceans,?And they gave her the heart of a little child.
These Radiant Rulers (who are not human?Nor