Solitude

Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air;
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.
Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go;
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all-
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life's gall.
Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a large and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain.

About Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850 – 1919)

Ella Wilcox was born in Wisconsin and started writing at an early age. At the age of nine, she completed a novel of eleven chapters and at fifteen had her first poem published in the Waverley Magazine.

After getting her first cheque from her works, the floodgate of inspiration and ambition just opened up for Wilcox.

She married Robert Wilcox, a silver salesman and had a son who died a few hours after his birth. After 30 years of their marriage, her husband died of pneumonia and she was believed to be overcome by grief. When her life turned upside down, she spent her time to spiritualism and was interested in theosophy.

After his death, she went to France to comfort the American soldiers believing that it was what her deceased husband would want her to do. While engaging in her war relief effort she had a nervous collapse and was believed to suffer from cancer.

Ella Wilcox poems always express optimism. Her works are full of words of hope, love, faith and compassion. The book by which she was best known is the Poems of Passion.