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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,
a year before her death.
BIOGRAPHY
Ella Wheeler was born in 1850 on a farm in Johnstown, Wisconsin,
east of Janesville, the youngest of four children. The family
soon moved 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.
Her
most famous poem, "Solitude", was first published
in the February 25, 1883 issue of The New York Sun. The inspiration
for the poem came as she was travelling to attend the Governor's
inaugural ball in Madison, Wisconsin. On her way 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.
It was collected in the book Poems of Passion shortly after
in May 1883.
In
1884, she married Robert Wilcox of Meriden, Connecticut, where
the couple lived before moving to New York City and then to
Granite Bay in the Short Beach section of Branford, Connecticut.
The two homes they built on Long Island Sound, along with
several cottages, became known as Bungalow Court, and they
would hold gatherings there of literary and artistic friends.[1]
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.
WheelerWilcox's poem plaque at San Francisco's Jack Kerouac
Alley.Early in their married life, Robert and Ella Wheeler
Wilcox 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 no word from her Robert.
She wrote 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".
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".
Ella
Wheeler Wilcox died of cancer on October 30, 1919.
From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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