While Ella Wilcox is often thought of as a moralizing versifier of sentimental and predictable tetrameter, among her hundreds of poems a few verse gems and a good number of bon mots stand out. We owe to her verse such enduring phrases as "No Question is ever settled, Until it is settled right." (from "Settle the Question Right"), and "Laugh and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone," (from "Solitude"). Her poem, "The Undiscovered Country," concludes memorably with, "Go, know thyself, O man! There yet remains the undiscovered country of thy soul!" She deserves to be remembered as a poet for the peaks in the thicket of her production. At her best she was capable of depth and irony. Some of her peaks are reproduced here.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1850-1919

Advice	Momus, God of Laughter
The Optimist	The Tavern of Last Times
To Marry or not to Marry?	Uncontrolled