POEMS OF PASSION Illustrated by ELLA WHEELER WILCOX W. B. Conkey Company Publishers--Chicago 1883 [Illustration: Picture of Ella Wheeler Wilcox] * * * * * * OTHER BOOKS by Ella Wheeler Wilcox THREE WOMEN POEMS OF POWER MAURINE POEMS OF PASSION POEMS OF PLEASURE KINGDOM OF LOVE AND OTHER POEMS AN ERRING WOMAN'S LOVE EVERY-DAY THOUGHTS MEN WOMEN AND EMOTIONS AN AMBITIOUS MAN THE BEAUTIFUL LAND OF NOD AROUND THE YEAR WITH ELLA WHEELER WILCOX A Birthday Book * * * * * * _Oh, you who read some song that I have sung_, _What know you of the soul from whence it sprung_? _Dost dream the poet ever speaks aloud_ _His secret thought unto the listening crowd_? _Go take the murmuring sea-shell from the shore_: _You have its shape, its color and no more_. _It tells not one of those vast mysteries_ _That lie beneath the surface of the seas_. _Our songs are shells, cast out by-waves of thought_; _Here, take them at your pleasure; but think not_ _You've seen beneath the surface of the waves_, _Where lie our shipwrecks and our coral caves_. [Illustration: THE POET'S SONG] PREFACE Among the twelve hundred poems which have emanated from my too prolific pen there are some forty or fifty which treat entirely of that emotion which has been denominated "the grand passion"--love. A few of those are of an extremely fiery character. When I issued my collection known as "Maurine, and Other Poems," I purposely omitted all save two or three of these. I had been frequently accused of writing only sentimental verses; and I took pleasure and pride in presenting to the public a volume which contained more than one hundred poems upon other than sentimental topics. But no sooner was the book published than letters of regret came to me from friends and strangers, and from all quarters of the globe, asking why this or that love poem had been omitted. These regrets were repeated to me by so many people that I decided to collect and issue these poems in a small volume to be called "Poems of Passion." By the word "Passion" I meant the "grand passion" of love. To those who take exception to the title of the book I would suggest an early reference to Webster's definitions of the word. Since this volume has caused so much agitation throughout the entire country, and even sent a tremor across the Atlantic into the Old World, I beg leave to make a few statements concerning some of the poems. The excitement of mingled horror and amaze seems to center upon four poems, namely: "Delilah," "Ad Finem," "Conversion," and "Communism."