Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Ella Wheeler Wilcox on smoking, love, and autumn

She promised to become my wife, but whispered "Papa is my jailer"

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Smoke

  • Last summer, lazing by the sea,
  •     I met a most entrancing creature,
  • Her black eyes quite bewildered me —
  •     She had a Spanish cast of feature.
  • She often smoked a cigarette,
  •     And did it in the cutest fashion.
  • Before a week passed by she set
  •     My young heart in a raging passion.
  • I swore I loved her as my life,
  •     I gave her gems (don’t tell my tailor).
  • She promised to become my wife,
  •     But whispered, ‘Papa is my jailer.’
  • ‘We must be very sly, you see,
  •     For Papa will not list to reason.
  • You must not come to call on me
  •     Until he’s gone from home a season.
  • ‘I’ll send you word, now don’t forget,
  •     Take this as pledge, I will remember.’
  • She gave me a perfumed cigarette,
  •     And turned and left me with September.
  • To-day she sent her ‘cards’ to me.
  •     ‘My presence asked’ to see her marry
  • That millionaire old banker C —
  •     She has my ‘presents,’ so I’ll tarry.
  • And still I feel a keen regret
  •     (About the jewels that I gave her)
  • I’ve smoked the little cigarette —
  •     It had a most delicious flavor.

Last Love

  • The first flower of the spring is not so fair
  • Or bright, as one the ripe midsummer brings.
  • The first faint note the forest warbler sings
  • Is not as rich with feeling, or so rare
  • As when, full master of his art, the air
  • Drowns in the liquid sea of song he flings
  • Like silver spray from beak, and breast, and wings.
  • The artist’s earliest effort wrought with care,
  • The bard’s first ballad, written in his tears,
  • Set by his later toil seems poor and tame.
  • And into nothing dwindles at the test.
  • So with the passions of maturer years
  • Let those who will demand the first fond flame,
  • Give me the heart’s last love, for that is best.

An Autumn Day

  • Leaden skies and a lonesome shadow
  •     Where summer has passed with her gorgeous train;
  • Snow on the mountain, and frost on the meadow--
  •     A white face pressed to the window pane;
  • A cold mist falling, a bleak wind a calling,
  •     And oh! but life seems vain.
  • Rain is better than golden weather,
  •     When the heart is dulled with a dumb despair.
  • Dead leaves lie where they walked together,
  •     The hammock is gone, and the rustic chair.
  • Let bleak snows cover the whole world over —
  •     It will never again seem fair.
  • Time laughs lightly at youth’s sad ‘Never,’
  •     Summer shall come again, smiling once more,
  • High o’er the cold world the sun shines forever,
  •     Hearts that seemed dead are alive at the core.
  • Oh, but the pain of it — oh, but the gain of it,
  •     After the shadows pass o’er.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) was an American poet best known for her poem “Solitude,” which opens with the lines “Laugh, and the world laughs with you/Weep, and you weep alone.” Considered a popular poet, she has also often been cited for her “bad” poetry; however, the cheer and optimism present in her poems drew, at least during her lifetime, a cadre of followers that served as a counterbalance to her critical reception among scholars. Born in Wisconsin, Wilcox also spent a good deal of time studying theosophy and spiritualism in California.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Trophy truck crushes four at Baja 1000

"Two other racers on quads died too,"
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Smoke

  • Last summer, lazing by the sea,
  •     I met a most entrancing creature,
  • Her black eyes quite bewildered me —
  •     She had a Spanish cast of feature.
  • She often smoked a cigarette,
  •     And did it in the cutest fashion.
  • Before a week passed by she set
  •     My young heart in a raging passion.
  • I swore I loved her as my life,
  •     I gave her gems (don’t tell my tailor).
  • She promised to become my wife,
  •     But whispered, ‘Papa is my jailer.’
  • ‘We must be very sly, you see,
  •     For Papa will not list to reason.
  • You must not come to call on me
  •     Until he’s gone from home a season.
  • ‘I’ll send you word, now don’t forget,
  •     Take this as pledge, I will remember.’
  • She gave me a perfumed cigarette,
  •     And turned and left me with September.
  • To-day she sent her ‘cards’ to me.
  •     ‘My presence asked’ to see her marry
  • That millionaire old banker C —
  •     She has my ‘presents,’ so I’ll tarry.
  • And still I feel a keen regret
  •     (About the jewels that I gave her)
  • I’ve smoked the little cigarette —
  •     It had a most delicious flavor.

Last Love

  • The first flower of the spring is not so fair
  • Or bright, as one the ripe midsummer brings.
  • The first faint note the forest warbler sings
  • Is not as rich with feeling, or so rare
  • As when, full master of his art, the air
  • Drowns in the liquid sea of song he flings
  • Like silver spray from beak, and breast, and wings.
  • The artist’s earliest effort wrought with care,
  • The bard’s first ballad, written in his tears,
  • Set by his later toil seems poor and tame.
  • And into nothing dwindles at the test.
  • So with the passions of maturer years
  • Let those who will demand the first fond flame,
  • Give me the heart’s last love, for that is best.

An Autumn Day

  • Leaden skies and a lonesome shadow
  •     Where summer has passed with her gorgeous train;
  • Snow on the mountain, and frost on the meadow--
  •     A white face pressed to the window pane;
  • A cold mist falling, a bleak wind a calling,
  •     And oh! but life seems vain.
  • Rain is better than golden weather,
  •     When the heart is dulled with a dumb despair.
  • Dead leaves lie where they walked together,
  •     The hammock is gone, and the rustic chair.
  • Let bleak snows cover the whole world over —
  •     It will never again seem fair.
  • Time laughs lightly at youth’s sad ‘Never,’
  •     Summer shall come again, smiling once more,
  • High o’er the cold world the sun shines forever,
  •     Hearts that seemed dead are alive at the core.
  • Oh, but the pain of it — oh, but the gain of it,
  •     After the shadows pass o’er.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) was an American poet best known for her poem “Solitude,” which opens with the lines “Laugh, and the world laughs with you/Weep, and you weep alone.” Considered a popular poet, she has also often been cited for her “bad” poetry; however, the cheer and optimism present in her poems drew, at least during her lifetime, a cadre of followers that served as a counterbalance to her critical reception among scholars. Born in Wisconsin, Wilcox also spent a good deal of time studying theosophy and spiritualism in California.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Gonzo Report: Eating dinner while little kids mock-mosh at Golden Island

“The tot absorbs the punk rock shot with the skill of experience”
Next Article

Classical Classical at The San Diego Symphony Orchestra

A concert I didn't know I needed
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader