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The Word

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

1850 –

1919

Oh, a word is a gem, or a stone, or a song,

Or a flame, or a two-edged sword;

Or a rose in bloom, or a sweet perfume,

Or a drop of gall is a word.

You may choose your word like a connoisseur,

And polish it up with art,

But the word that sways, and stirs, and stays,

Is the word that comes from the heart.

You may work on your word a thousand weeks,

But it will not glow like one

That all unsought, leaps forth white hot,

When the fountains of feeling run.

This poem is in the public domain.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox was born in 1850 in Johnstown Center, Wisconsin. Her poetry collections include Poems of Passion (W. B. Conkey Company, 1883) and Poems of Peace (Gay & Bird, 1906).

About Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Themes

About this Poem

“The Word” originally appeared in New Thought Pastels (Elizabeth Towne, 1906).

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More by this poet

Thanksgiving

We walk on starry fields of white
   And do not see the daisies;
For blessings common in our sight
   We rarely offer praises.
We sigh for some supreme delight
   To crown our lives with splendor,
And quite ignore our daily store
   Of pleasures sweet and tender.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

2017

Protest

To sin by silence, when we should protest,
Makes cowards out of men. The human race
Has climbed on protest. Had no voice been raised
Against injustice, ignorance, and lust,
The inquisition yet would serve the law,
And guillotines decide our least disputes.
The few who dare, must speak and speak again

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

2017

The Things that Count

Now, dear, it isn’t the bold things,
Great deeds of valour and might,
That count the most in the summing up of life at the end of the day.
But it is the doing of old things,
Small acts that are just and right;
And doing them over and over again, no matter what others say;
In smiling at fate, when you want to cry, and in keeping at work when you want to play—
Dear, those are the things that count.

And, dear, it isn’t the new ways
Where the wonder-seekers crowd
That lead us into the land of content, or help us to find our own.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

1919

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The Word

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