Ella Wheeler Wilcox
November 05, 1855 – October 30, 1919
Countries:
USA
Place of Birth:
Johnstown, Wisconsin
Place of Death:
Short Beach, Connecticut
Categories:
Poetry
Ella Wheeler Wilcox 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.
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 Alexander Pope's "Whatever is, is right."
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 Alexander Pope's "Whatever is, is right."