LOVE
_AND OTHER POEMS_
BY
ELLA WHEELER WILCOX
GAY AND HANCOCK, LTD.
12 & 13, HENRIETTA STREET, STRAND
LONDON
1909
[_All rights reserved_]
Contents:
The Kingdom Of Love
Meg's Curse
Solitude
The Gossips
Platonic
Grandpa's Christmas
After The Engagement
A Holiday
False
Two Sinners
The Phantom Ball
Words And Thoughts
Wanted--A Little Girl
The Suicide
"Now I Lay Me"
The Messenger
A Servian Legend
Peek-A-Boo
The Falling Of Thrones
Her Last Letter
The Princess's Finger-Nail
A Baby In The House
The Foolish Elm
Robin's Mistake
New Year Resolve
What We Want
Breaking The Day In Two
The Rape Of The Mist
The Two Glasses
The Maniac
What Is Flirtation?
Husband And Wife
How Does Love Speak?
Reincarnation
As You Go Through Life
How Salvator Won
The Watcher
How Will It Be?
Memory's River
Love's Way
A Man's Last Love
The Lady And The Dame
Confession
A Married Coquette
Forbidden Speech
The Summer Girl
The Ghost
The Signboard
A Man's Repentance
Aristarchus
Dell And I
About May
Vanity Fair
The Giddy Girl
A Girl's Autumn Reverie
His Youth
Under The Sheet
A Pin
The Coming Man
THE KINGDOM OF LOVE
In the dawn of the day when the sea and the earth
Reflected the sunrise above,
I set forth with a heart full of courage and mirth
To seek for the Kingdom of Love.
I asked of a Poet I met on the way
Which cross-road would lead me aright;
And he said "Follow me, and ere long you shall see
Its glittering turrets of light."
And soon in the distance a city shone fair.
"Look yonder," he said; "How it gleams!"
But alas! for the hopes that were doomed to despair,
It was only the "Kingdom of Dreams."
Then the next man I asked was a gay Cavalier,
And he said: "Follow me, follow me";
And with laughter and song we went speeding along
By the shores of Life's beautiful sea.
Then we came to a valley more tropical far
Than the wonderful vale of Cashmere,
And I saw from a bower a face like a flower
Smile out on the gay Cavalier;
And he said: "We have come to humanity's goal:
Here love and delight are intense."
But alas and alas! for the hopes of my soul--
It was only the "Kingdom of Sense."
As I journeyed more slowly I met on the road
A coach with retainers behind;
And they said: "Follow me, for our Lady's abode
Belongs in that realm, you will find."
'Twas a grand dame of fashion, a newly-made bride,
I followed, encouraged and bold;
But my hopes died away like the last gleams of day,
For we came to the "Kingdom of Gold."
At the door of a cottage I asked a fair maid.
"I have heard of that realm," she replied;
"But my feet never roam from the 'Kingdom of Home,'
So I know not the way," and she sighed.
I looked on the cottage; how restful it seemed!
And the maid was as fair as a dove.
Great light glorified my soul as I cried:
"Why, _Home_ is the 'Kingdom of Love'!"