Poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Will (You will be what you will to be)

  You will be what you will to be;
Let failure find its false content
In that poor word ”environment,”
  But spirit scorns it, and is free,

  It masters time, it conquers space,
It cows that boastful trickster Chance,
And bids the tyrant Circumstance
  Uncrown and fill a servant’s place.

  The human Will, that force unseen,
The offspring of a deathless Soul,
Can hew the way to any goal,
  Though walls of granite intervene.

  Be not impatient in delay,
But wait as one who understands;
When spirit rises and commands,
  The gods are ready to obey.

  The river seeking for the sea
Confronts the dam and precipice,
Yet knows it cannot fail or miss;
  You will be what you will to be!

1. At the Boro Boedoer
2. Sonnets of Sorrow. 18. The wise ones tell me that my heart's wild clamour
3. Applause
4. The Beggar Cat
5. Bless the Babies

Print

2546 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version