Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Worldly Wisdom

If it were in my dead Past's power
    To let my Present bask
In some lost pleasure for an hour,
    This is the boon I'd ask:

Re-pedestal from out the dust
    Where long ago 'twas hurled,
My beautiful incautious trust
    In this unworthy world.

The symbol of my own soul's truth---
    I saw it go with tears---
The sweet unwisdom of my youth---
    That vanished with the years.

Since knowledge brings us only grief,
    I would return again
To happy ignorance and belief
    In motives and in men.

For worldly wisdom learned in pain
    Is in itself a cross,
Significant mayhap of gain,
    Yet sign of saddest loss.