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TITLE: THE KINGDOM OF LOVE AND OTHER POEMS
AUTHOR: ELLA WHEELER WILCOX
EBOOK: E02772 (O'Briens Book Cellar)

THE KINGDOM OF LOVE AND OTHER POEMS

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Contents:

The Kingdom Of Love
Meg's Curse
Solitude
The Gossips
Platonic
Grandpa's Christmas
After The Engagement
A Holiday
False
Two Sinners
The Phantom Ball
Words And Thoughts
Wanted--A Little Girl
The Suicide
"Now I Lay Me"
The Messenger
A Servian Legend
Peek-A-Boo
The Falling Of Thrones
Her Last Letter
The Princess's Finger-Nail
A Baby In The House
The Foolish Elm
Robin's Mistake
New Year Resolve
What We Want
Breaking The Day In Two
The Rape Of The Mist
The Two Glasses
The Maniac
What Is Flirtation?
Husband And Wife
How Does Love Speak?
Reincarnation
As You Go Through Life
How Salvator Won
The Watcher
How Will It Be?
Memory's River
Love's Way
A Man's Last Love
The Lady And The Dame
Confession
A Married Coquette
Forbidden Speech
The Summer Girl
The Ghost
The Signboard
A Man's Repentance
Aristarchus
Dell And I
About May
Vanity Fair
The Giddy Girl
A Girl's Autumn Reverie
His Youth
Under The Sheet
A Pin
The Coming Man

THE KINGDOM OF LOVE

In the dawn of the day when the sea and the earth
   Reflected the sunrise above,
I set forth with a heart full of courage and mirth
   To seek for the Kingdom of Love.
I asked of a Poet I met on the way
   Which cross-road would lead me aright;
And he said "Follow me, and ere long you shall see
   Its glittering turrets of light."

And soon in the distance a city shone fair.
   "Look yonder," he said; "How it gleams!"
But alas! for the hopes that were doomed to despair,
   It was only the "Kingdom of Dreams."
Then the next man I asked was a gay Cavalier,
   And he said:  "Follow me, follow me";
And with laughter and song we went speeding along
   By the shores of Life's beautiful sea.

Then we came to a valley more tropical far
   Than the wonderful vale of Cashmere,
And I saw from a bower a face like a flower
   Smile out on the gay Cavalier;
And he said:  "We have come to humanity's goal:
   Here love and delight are intense."
But alas and alas! for the hopes of my soul -
   It was only the "Kingdom of Sense."

As I journeyed more slowly I met on the road
   A coach with retainers behind;
And they said:  "Follow me, for our Lady's abode
   Belongs in that realm, you will find."
'Twas a grand dame of fashion, a newly-made bride,
   I followed, encouraged and bold;
But my hopes died away like the last gleams of day,
   For we came to the "Kingdom of Gold."

At the door of a cottage I asked a fair maid.
   "I have heard of that realm," she replied;
"But my feet never roam from the 'Kingdom of Home,'
   So I know not the way," and she sighed.
I looked on the cottage; how restful it seemed!
   And the maid was as fair as a dove.
Great light glorified my soul as I cried:
   "Why, HOME is the 'Kingdom of Love'!"

MEG'S CURSE

The sun rode high in a cloudless sky
   Of a perfect summer morn.
She stood and gazed out into the street,
   And wondered why she was born.
On the topmost branch of a maple-tree
   That close by the window grew,
A robin called to his mate enthralled:
   "I love but you, but you, but you."

A soft look came in her hardened face -
   She had not wept for years;
But the robin's trill, as some sounds will,
   Jarred open the door of tears.
She thought of the old home far away;
   She heard the whr-r-r of the mill;
She heard the turtle's wild, sweet call,
   And the wail of the whip-poor-will, whip-poor-will, whip-poor-will.

She saw again that dusty road
   Whence he came riding down;
She smelled once more the flower she wore
   In the breast of her simple gown.
Out on the new-mown meadow she heard
   Two blue-jays quarrel and fret,
And the warning cry of a Phoebe bird
   "More wet, more wet, more wet."

With a blithe "Hello" to the men below
   Who were spreading the new-mown hay,
The rider drew rein at her window-pane -
   How it all came back to-day!
How young she was, and how fair she was;
   What innocence crowned her brow!
The future seemed fair, for Love was there -
   And now--and now--and now.

In a dingy glass on the wall near by
   She gazed on her faded face.
"Well, Meg, I declare, what a beauty you are!
   She sneered, "What an angel of grace!
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!
   What a thing of beauty and grace!"
She reached out her arms with a moaning sob:
   "Oh, if I could go back!"
Then, swift and strange, came a sudden change;
   Her brow grew hard and black.

"A curse on the day and a curse on that man,
   And on all who are his," she cried;
"May he starve and be cold, may he live to be old
   When all who loved him have died."
Her wild voice frightened the robin away
   From the branch by the window-sill;
And little he knew as away he flew,
   Of the memories stirred by his trill.

He called to his mate on the grass below,
   "Follow me," as he soared on high;
And as mates have done since the world begun
   She followed, and asked not why.
The dingy room seemed curtained with gloom;
   Meg shivered with nameless dread.
The ghost of her youth and her murdered truth
   Seemed risen up from the dead.

She hurried out into the noisy street,
   For the silence made her afraid;
To flee from thought was all she sought,
   She cared not whither she strayed.
Still on she pressed in her wild unrest
   Up avenues skirting the park,
Where fashion's throng moved gayly along
   In Vanity Fair--when hark!

A clatter of hoofs down the stony street,
   The snort of a frightened horse
That was running wild, and a laughing child
   At play in its very course.
With one swift glance Meg saw it all.
   "HIS child--my God! HIS child!"
She cried aloud, as she rushed through the crowd
   Like one grown suddenly wild.

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