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A Girl's Autumn Reverie
We plucked a red rose, you and I,
All in the summer weather;
Sweet its perfume and rare its bloom,
Enjoyed by us together.
The rose is dead, the summer fled,
And bleak winds are complaining;
We dwell apart, but in each heart
We find the thorn remaining.
We sipped a sweet wine, you and I,
All in the summer weather.
The beaded draught we lightly quaffed,
And filled the glass together.
Together we watched its rosy glow,
And saw its bubbles glitter;
Apart, alone we only know
The lees are very bitter.
We walked in sunshine, you and I,
All in the summer weather:
The very night seemed noonday bright,
When we two were together.
I wonder why with our good-bye
O'er hill and vale and meadow
There fell such shade, our paths seemed laid
For evermore in shadow.
We dreamed a sweet dream, you and I,
All in the summer weather,
Where rose and wine and warm sunshine
Were mingled in together.
We dreamed that June was with us yet,
We woke to find December.
We dreamed that we two could forget,
We woke but to remember.
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About Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850 – 1919) |
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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. |