Linda Lipko's Reviews > 101 Great American Poems

What a pity I waited so long to read this. As I expected, the small volume contains excellent poems of Cummings, Emerson, Longfellow, Poe, Whitman, Dickinson, Gertrude Stein and Robert Frost.

But, the true delight was discovering unknown poets. Here are two of my favorites:

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
The description notes she was a prolific author all her life and wrote her first novel at the age of nine!

Solitude
Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone.
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills with anser;
Sigh, it is lost on the air.
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink for voicing care.

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 fall

Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
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.

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After reading this, I thought of the blessings of friends who make life so much easier by caring and sharing. So many difficult times in my life were/are shared by loving friends.

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The real gem in this book of 101 Great American Poems took my breath away as I read and re-read the message.

I've never heard of Countee Cullen (1903-1946) but vow to find more of his works.

The descriptive sentences note that although he wished to be known primarily as a poet and not as a Negro poet. From 1943 until his death, he was a teacher in the New York City public schools.

Incident

Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, "Nigger."

I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember.

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