Poems of Purpose

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Poems of Purpose, by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (#10 in our series by Ella Wheeler Wilcox)
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Title: Poems of Purpose
Author: Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6618]?[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]?[This file was first posted on December 31, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
? START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, POEMS OF PURPOSE ***
Transcribed from the 1919 Gay and Hancock edition by David Price, email [email protected]
POEMS OF PURPOSE
Contents:
A Good Sport?A Son Speaks?The Younger Born?Happiness?Seeking for Happiness?The Island of Endless Play?The River of Sleep?The Things that Count?Limitless?What They Saw?The Convention?Protest?A Bachelor to a Married Flirt?The Superwoman?Certitude?Compassion?Love?Three Souls?When Love is Lost?Occupation?The Valley of Fear?What would it be??America?War Mothers?A Holiday?The Undertone?Gypsying?Song of the Road?The Faith we Need?The Price he Paid?Divorced?The Revealing Angels?The Well-born?Sisters of Mine?Answer?The Graduates?The Silent Tragedy?The Trinity?The Unwed Mother to the Wife?Father and Son?Husks?Meditations?The Traveller?What Have You Done?
A GOOD SPORT
I was a little lad, and the older boys called to me from the pier: They called to me: 'Be a sport: be a sport! Leap in and swim!' I leaped in and swam, though I had never been taught a stroke. Then I was made a hero, and they all shouted:
'Well done! Well done,?Brave boy, you are a sport, a good sport!'?And I was very glad.
But now I wish I had learned to swim the right way,
Or had never learned at all.?Now I regret that day,
For it led to my fall.
I was a youth, and I heard the older men talking of the road to wealth; They talked of bulls and bears, of buying on margins,?And they said, 'Be a sport, my boy, plunge in and win or lose it all! It is the only way to fortune.'?So I plunged in and won; and the older men patted me on the back, And they said, 'You are a sport, my boy, a good sport!'?And I was very glad.
But now I wish I had lost all I ventured on that day -
Yes, wish I had lost it all.?For it was the wrong way,
And pushed me to my fall.
I was a young man, and the gay world called me to come;?Gay women and gay men called to me, crying:
'Be a sport; be a good sport!?Fill our glasses and let us fill yours.?We are young but once; let us dance and sing,?And drive the dull hours of night until they stand at bay?Against the shining bayonets of day.'?So I filled my glass, and I filled their glasses, over and over again, And I sang and danced and drank, and drank and danced and sang, And I heard them cry, 'He is a sport, a good sport!'?As they held their glasses out to be filled again.?And I was very glad.
Oh the madness of youth and song and dance and wine,?Of woman's eyes and lips, when the night dies in the arms of dawn! And now I wish I had not gone that way.?Now I wish I had not heard them say,?'He is a sport, a good sport!'?For I am old who should be young.?The splendid vigour of my youth I flung?Under the feet of a mad, unthinking throng.?My strength went out with wine and dance and song;?Unto the winds of earth I tossed like chaff,?With idle jest and laugh,?The pride of splendid manhood, all its wealth?Of unused power and health -?Its dream of looking into some pure girl's eyes?And finding there its earthly paradise -?Its hope of virile children free from blight -?Its thoughts of climbing to some noble height?Of great achievement--all these gifts divine?I cast away for song and dance and wine.?Oh, I have been a sport, a good sport;?But I am very sad.
A SON SPEAKS
Mother, sit down, for I have much to say?Anent this widespread ever-growing theme?Of woman and her virtues and her rights.
I left you for the large, loud world of men,?When I had lived one little score of years.?I judged all women by you, and my heart?Was filled with high esteem and reverence?For your angelic