Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Three Friends - Poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Of all the blessings which my life has known,
I value most, and most praise God for three:
Want, Loneliness and Pain, those comrades true,
Who, masquerade in the garb of foes
For many a year, and filled my heart with dread.
Yet fickle joys, like false, pretentious friends,
Have proved less worthy than this trio. First,
Want taught me labor, led me up the steep
And toilsome paths to hills of pure delight,
Trod only by the feet that know fatigue,
And yet press on until the heights appear.
Then loneliness and hunger of the heart
Sent me upreaching to the realms of space,
Till all the silences grew eloquent,
And all their loving forces hailed me friend.
Last, pain taught me prayer! placed in my hand the staff
Of close communion with the over-soul,
That I might lean upon it to the end,
And find myself made strong for any strife.
And then these three who had pursued my steps
Like stern, relentless foes, year after year,
Unmasked, and turned their faces full on me,
And lo! they were divinely beautiful,
For through them shone the lustrous eyes of Love.
Read this poem in other languages
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem »

Read poems about / on: pain, beautiful, friend, heart, god, life, joy
Ella Wheeler Wilcox's Other Poems
Famous Poems
-
Phenomenal Woman
Maya Angelou
-
Still I Rise
Maya Angelou
-
The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost
-
If You Forget Me
Pablo Neruda
-
Dreams
Langston Hughes
-
Annabel Lee
Edgar Allan Poe
-
Caged Bird
Maya Angelou
-
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
Robert Frost
-
If
Rudyard Kipling
-
A Dream Within A Dream
Edgar Allan Poe
Comments about Three Friends by Ella Wheeler Wilcox