Книга: Ella Wheeler Wilcox «Poems Of Life»

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (November 5, 1850–October 30, 1919) was an American author and poet. Her best-known work was "Poems of Passion". Her most enduring work was "Solitude", which contains the lines: "Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone." Her autobiography, "The Worlds and I" was published in 1918 shortly before her death.

Life

Ella Wheeler was born in 1850 on a farm in rural Johnstown, Wisconsin, east of Janesville, the youngest of four children. The family soon moved to north of Madison. She started writing poetry at a very early age, and was well known as a poet in her own state by the time she graduated from high school. When about 28 years of age, she married Robert Wilcox. They had one child, a son, who died shortly after birth. Not long after their marriage, they both became interested in Theosophy, New Thought, and Spiritualism.Early in their married life, they promised each other that whoever went first through death would return and communicate with the other. Robert Wilcox died in 1916, after over thirty years of marriage. She was overcome with grief, which became ever more intense as week after week went without any message from him. It was at this time that she went to California to see the Rosicrucian astrologer Max Heindel, still seeking help in her sorrow, still unable to understand why she had had no word from her Robert. This is how she tells of this meeting:

"In talking with Max Heindel, the leader of the Rosicrucian Philosophy in California, he made very clear to me the effect of intense grief. Mr. Heindel assured me that I would come in touch with the spirit of my husband when I learned to control my sorrow. I replied that it seemed strange to me that an omnipotent God could not send a flash of his light into a suffering soul to bring its conviction when most needed. Did you ever stand beside a clear pool of water, asked Mr. Heindel, and see the trees and skies repeated therein? And did you ever cast a stone into that pool and see it clouded and turmoiled, so it gave no reflection? Yet the skies and trees were waiting above to be reflected when the waters grew calm. So God and your husband's spirit wait to show themselves to you when the turbulence of sorrow is quieted"."

Several months later, she composed a little mantra or affirmative prayer which she said over and over "I am the living witness: The dead live: And they speak through us and to us: And I am the voice that gives this glorious truth to the suffering world: I am ready, God: I am ready, Christ: I am ready, Robert.".

Wilcox made efforts to teach occult things to the world. Her works, filled with positivism, were popular in the New Thought Movement and by 1915 her booklet, "What I Know About New Thought" had a distribution of 50,000 copies, according to its publisher, Elizabeth Towne.

The following statement expresses Wilcox's unique blending of New Thought, Spiritualism, and a Theosophical belief in reincarnation: "As we think, act, and live here today, we built the structures of our homes in spirit realms after we leave earth, and we build karma for future lives, thousands of years to come, on this earth or other planets. Life will assume new dignity, and labor new interest for us, when we come to the knowledge that death is but a continuation of life and labor, in higher planes"."

Poetry

A popular poet rather than a literary poet, in her poems she expresses sentiments of cheer and optimism in plainly written, rhyming verse. Her world view is expressed in the title of her poem "Whatever Is—Is Best" (suggesting an echo of Pope's "Whatever is, is right."). None of her work was included by F. O. Matthiessen in "The Oxford Book of American Verse," but Hazel Felleman chose no fewer than thirteen of her poems for "Best Loved Poems of the American People," while Martin Gardner selected "Solitude" and "The Winds of Fate" for "Best Remembered Poems".

She is frequently cited in anthologies of bad poetry, such as "The Stuffed Owl: An Anthology of Bad Verse" and "Very Bad Poetry". Sinclair Lewis indicates Babbitt's lack of literary sophistication by having him refer to a piece of verse as "one of the classic poems, like 'If' by Kipling, or Ella Wheeler Wilcox's 'The Man Worth While.'"The latter opens: :"It is easy enough to be pleasant,": "When life flows by like a song,":"But the man worth while is one who will smile,": "When everything goes dead wrong."

Her most famous lines open her poem "Solitude":

:"Laugh and the world laughs with you,": "Weep, and you weep alone;":"The good old earth must borrow its mirth,": "But has trouble enough of its own."

"The Winds of Fate" is a marvel of economy, far too short to summarize. In full:

:"One ship drives east and another drives west:" With the selfsame winds that blow.:" 'Tis the set of the sails,:" And Not the gales,:" That tell us the way to go.

:"Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate;:" As we voyage along through life,:" 'Tis the set of a soul:" That decides its goal,:" And not the calm or the strife.

Her quote "Love lights more fires than hate extinguishes" can be seen inscribed on a paving slab in Jack Kerouac Alley in San Francisco (next to the City Lights Bookstore)

"Solitude," was first published in the Feb. 25, 1883, issue of the New York Sun. The inspiration for the poem was when she was to attend the governor's inaugural ball in Madison, Wis. as she was travelling to the celebration, there was a young woman dressed in black sitting across the aisle from her. The woman was crying. Miss Wheeler sat next to her and sought to comfort her for the rest of the journey. When they arrived, the poet was so depressed that she could barely attend the scheduled festivities. As she looked at her own radiant face in the mirror, she suddenly recalled the sorrowful widow. It was at that moment that she wrote the opening lines of "Solitude":

"Laugh, and the world laughs with you; "Weep, and you weep alone."

She sent the poem to the Sun and received $5 for her effort. In May, 1883, "Solitude" appeared in Miss Wheeler's book "Poems of Passion". In 1885 author Col. John Alexander Joyce produced the second edition of his "A Checkered Life, a book of personal reminiscences." At the end of the book was a collection of Joyce's poems, one of which was titled "Laugh and the World Laughs with You." The poem was, word for word, a reprint of "Solitude." Mrs. Wilcox immediately challenged Joyce to produce evidence of his authorship, and she offered to donate $5,000 to any reputable charity of Joyce's choosing-the sum to be given in his name-if he could prove that she was not the actual author of the poem. While no one else disputed the fact that Mrs. Wilcox had authored the poem, Joyce refused to abandon his claim. Throughout the rest of his life, he continued to reprint the poem as his own. Before he died in 1915, he had the first two lines of "Solitude" emblazoned on his tombstone in Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C. (Citation: http://www.trivia-library.com/b/origins-of-sayings-laugh-and-the-world-laughs-with-you.htm)

Autobiography

Her final words in her autobiography "The Worlds and I":

"From this mighty storehouse (of God, and the hierarchies of Spiritual Beings ) we may gather wisdom and knowledge, and receive light and power, as we pass through this preparatory room of earth, which is only one of the innumerable mansions in our Father's house. Think on these things"."

Influence

Ella Wheeler Wilcox's name provided the unlikely inspiration for doggerel by the English humorist Richard Murdoch, which he set to the opening bars of Alexandre Luigini's "Ballet egyptien".

Works

*Book (Autobiography)
**"The Worlds and I", New York: George II Doran Company, c1918 [http://ellawheelerwilcox.tripod.com/www1.htm www]

*Poetry
**"The Invisible Helpers" in Cosmopolitan 57 (October 1914): 578-579 [http://ellawheelerwilcox.tripod.com/the_invisible_helpers.htm www]
**"The Voice of the Voiceless" [http://ellawheelerwilcox.tripod.com/live_and_let_live.htm www]
**"Disarmament" [http://ellawheelerwilcox.tripod.com/disarmament.htm www]
**"Roads to God" [http://ellawheelerwilcox.tripod.com/roads_to_god.htm www]
**"To An Astrologer" [http://ellawheelerwilcox.tripod.com/to_an_astrologer.htm www]
**"Secret Thoughts" [http://ellawheelerwilcox.tripod.com/secret_thoughts.htm www]
**"An Ambitious Man" [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/ammn10h.htm www]
**"An Englishman and Other Poems" [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/engm10h.htm www]
**"Hello, Boys!" [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/helb10h.htm www]
**"The Kingdom of Love" [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/kgdlv10.txt www]
**"Maurine and other Poems" [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/maurn10.txt www]
**"New Thought Pastels" [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext02/nwthp10.txt www]
**"Poems of Cheer" [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3238 www]
**"Poems of Experience" [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/5170 www]
**"Poems of Optimism" [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/pmop10h.htm www]
**"Poems of Passion" [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16776/16776-h/16776-h.htm www]
**"Poems of Power" [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/ppow10h.htm www]
**"Poems of Progress" [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext02/pmprg10.txt www]
**"Poems of Purpose" [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/ppur10h.htm www]
**"Poems of Sentiment" [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/psen10h.htm www]
**"A Woman of the World" [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12020/12020-h/12020-h.htm www]
**"Yesterday" [http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/yestr10.txt www]

Poems of Reflection copyright 1905 M. A. Donahue& co. isbn not included in copy in hand

External links

* [http://www.ellawheelerwilcox.org/ Ella Wheeler Wilcox] biographies and poems
* [http://www.cordula.ws/a-wilcoxew.html Cordula's Web] features illustrated poems by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
* [http://ellawheelerwilcox.tripod.com/ Ella Wheeler Wilcox - an advanced soul]
*gutenberg author|id=Ella_Wheeler_Wilcox|name=Ella Wheeler Wilcox
*worldcat id|lccn-n80-8570
* [http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:RAD.SCHL:sch00244 Ella Wheeler Wilcox Papers.] [http://www.radcliffe.edu/schles Schlesinger Library,] Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.

Источник: Ella Wheeler Wilcox