Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Overview
 
Ella Wheeler Wilcox was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 author and poet
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...

. Her best-known work was Poems of Passion. Her most enduring work was " Soiltude
Solitude (poem)
"Solitude" is a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, best remembered for its opening lines, "Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone."-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.
Ella Wheeler was born in 1850 on a farm in Johnstown
Johnstown, Rock County, Wisconsin
Johnstown is a town in Rock County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 802 at the 2000 census. The unincorporated communities of Johnstown and Johnstown Center are located in the town.-Geography:...

, Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

, east of Janesville
Janesville, Wisconsin
Janesville is a city in southern Wisconsin, United States. It is the county seat of Rock County and the principal municipality of the Janesville, Wisconsin Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 62,998.-History:...

, the youngest of four children.
Quotations

Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone. For this brave 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.

Solitude

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.

Solitude

There is room in the halls of pleasure For a long and lordly train, But one by one we must all file on Through the narrow aisles of pain.

Solitude

No question is ever settled Until it is settled right.

Settle the Question Right.

Here, on this side of the grave, Here, should we labor and love.

Here and Now

So many gods, so many creeds; So many paths that wind and wind, While just the art of being kind Is all the sad world needs.

The World's Need

I'm no reformer; for I see more light Than darkness in the world; mine eyes are quick To catch the first dim radiance of the dawn, And slow to note the cloud that threatens storm.

Optimism

I find a rapture linked with each despair, Well worth the price of anguish. I detect More good than evil in humanity. Love lights more fires than hate extinguishes, And men grow better as the world grows old.

Optimism

Between the finite and the infinite The missing link of Love has left a void. Supply the link, and earth with Heaven will join In one continued chain of endless life.

The Way (1913)

 
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