Poems of Passion | Page 2

against King Reason.
"Conversion" was suggested to me by the remark of a gentleman friend.
In speaking to me of the woman he loved, he said: "I have always been
a skeptic regarding the existence of heaven, but I am so much happier
in my love for this woman than I ever supposed it possible for me to be
on earth that I begin to believe that the tales of heavenly raptures may
be true."
I embodied his idea in the poem which has brought, with a few others,
so much censure and criticism upon this volume, although it contains
nearly seventy-five other selections quite irreproachable in character,
however faulty they may be in construction.
It is impossible to pursue a successful literary career and follow the
advice of all one's "best friends." I have received severe censure from
my orthodox friends for writing liberal verses. My liberal friends
condemn my devout and religious poems as "aiding superstition." My
early temperance verses were pronounced "fanatical trash" by others.

With all due thanks and appreciation for the kind motives which
interest so many dear friends in my career, I yet feel compelled to
follow the light which my own intellect and judgment cast upon my
way, rather than any one of the many conflicting rays which other
minds would lend me.
ELLA WHEELER.
[Illustration:]
[Illustration:]
CONTENTS
POEMS OF PASSION
Love's Language
Impatience
Communism
The Common Lot

Individuality
Friendship after Love
Queries
Upon the Sand

Reunited
What Shall We Do?
"The Beautiful Blue Danube"

Answered
Through the Valley
But One
Guilo
The Duet
Little
Queen
Wherefore?
Delilah
Love Song
Time and Love
Change

Desolation
Isaura
The Coquette
Not Quite the Same
New and
Old
From the Grave
A Waltz-Quadrille
Beppo
Tired
The
Speech of Silence
Conversion
Love's Coming
Old and New

Perfectness
Attraction
Gracia
Ad Finem
Bleak Weather
An
Answer
You Will Forget Me
The Farewell of Clarimonde

The
Trio
MISCELLANEOUS POEMS
The Lost Garden
Art and Heart
Mockery
As by Fire
If I Should
Die
Mésalliance
Response
Drought
The Creed
Progress
My
Friend
Creation
Red Carnations
Life is Too Short
A Sculptor

Beyond
The Saddest Hour
Show Me the Way
My Heritage

Resolve
At Eleusis
Courage
Solitude
The Year Outgrows the
Spring
The Beautiful Land of Nod
The Tiger
Only a Simple

Rhyme
I Will Be Worthy of It
Sonnet
Regret
Let Me Lean Hard

Penalty
Sunset
The Wheel of the Breast
A Meeting

Earnestness
A Picture
Twin-Born
Floods
A Fable
[Illustration: LOVE AND MEMORY]
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The Poets Song
Love and Memory
Rejoice and Men Will Seek You

Loves Language
Love's Impatience
The Common Lot
Love
Triumphant
Cool, Verdant Vales
The Old Delight that We Cast
Away
They Drift Down the Hall Together
Answered
But One
A
June Rose
I Love Thee; Thee Alone
The Duet
Happiest Days in
Our Lives
A Dream
Delilah
The Milky Way
Time and Love

Desolation
Tired of the Oft-read Story
From the Grave
Silver Bell
in Steeple
The Waltz-Quadrille
The Burden of Dear Human Ties

The Sea of Silence
Across the Ocean
Conversion
Love's Coming

Love and Life
Attraction
Bleak Weather

Woodlands and
Meadows
Two Warm Hearts Together
Love is Cold
The Trio

The Path I Longed to Climb
Recollections
Mésalliance

Day-Dreams
Came, Desired and Welcomed, into Life
Creation

Red Carnations
Beyond
Across the Sea of Silence
Solitude

Light and Beauty Blessed the Land
Beautiful Land of Nod
Only a
Simple Rhyme
The Strife that Is Wearying Me
Sunset
The Wheel
of the Breast
A Picture
A Fable
POEMS OF PASSION
[Illustration: "REJOICE, AND MEN WILL SEEK YOU"]
LOVE'S LANGUAGE.
How does Love speak?
In the faint flush upon the tell-tale cheek,

And in the pallor that succeeds it; by
The quivering lid of an averted
eye--
The smile that proves the patent to a sigh--

Thus doth Love speak.
How does Love speak?
By the uneven heart-throbs, and the freak

Of bounding pulses that stand still and ache,
While new emotions,
like strange barges, make
Along vein-channels their disturbing course;

Still as the dawn, and with the dawn's swift force--
Thus doth Love speak.
How does Love speak?
In the avoidance of that which we seek--

The sudden silence and reserve when near--
The eye that glistens
with an unshed tear--
The joy that seems the counterpart of fear,
As
the alarmed heart leaps in the breast,
And knows and names and
greets its godlike guest--
Thus doth Love speak.
How does Love speak?
In the proud spirit suddenly grown meek--

The haughty heart grown humble; in the tender
And unnamed light
that floods the world with splendor; In the resemblance which the fond
eyes trace
In all fair things to one beloved face;
In the shy touch of
hands that thrill and tremble;
In looks and lips that can no more
dissemble--
Thus doth Love speak.
How does Love speak?
In the wild words that uttered seem so weak

They shrink ashamed to silence; in the fire
Glance strikes with
glance, swift flashing high and higher Like lightnings that precede the
mighty storm;
In the deep, soulful stillness; in the warm,

Impassioned tide that sweeps through throbbing veins
Between the
shores of keen delight and pains;
In the embrace where madness
melts in bliss,
And in the convulsive rapture of a kiss--
Thus doth Love speak.

[Illustration: LOVE'S LANGUAGE]
IMPATIENCE.
How can I wait until you come to me?
The once fleet mornings linger
by the way,
Their sunny smiles touched with malicious glee
At my
unrest; they seem to pause, and play
Like truant children, while I sigh
and say,
How can I wait?
How can I wait? Of old, the rapid hours
Refused to pause or loiter with me long;
But now they idly fill their
hands with flowers,
And make no haste, but slowly stroll among

The summer blooms, not heeding my one song,