 | Poetical works of Ella Wheeler Wilcox |  |
261
THE LAND OF CONTENT
I set out for the Land of Content,
By the gay crowded pleasure-highway,
With laughter, and jesting, I went
With the mirth-loving throng for a day;
Then I knew I had wandered astray,
For I met returned pilgrims, belated,
Who said, “We are weary and sated,
But we found not the Land of Content.”
By the gay crowded pleasure-highway,
With laughter, and jesting, I went
With the mirth-loving throng for a day;
Then I knew I had wandered astray,
For I met returned pilgrims, belated,
Who said, “We are weary and sated,
But we found not the Land of Content.”
I turned to the steep path of fame.
I said, “It is over yon height—
This land with the beautiful name—
Ambition will lend me its light.”
But I passed in my journey ere night,
For the way grew so lonely and troubled;
I said—my anxiety doubled—
“This is not the road to Content.”
I said, “It is over yon height—
This land with the beautiful name—
Ambition will lend me its light.”
But I passed in my journey ere night,
For the way grew so lonely and troubled;
I said—my anxiety doubled—
“This is not the road to Content.”
Then I joined the great rabble and throng
That frequents the moneyed world's mart;
But the greed, and the grasping and wrong,
Left me only one wish—to depart.
And sickened, and saddened at heart,
I hurried away from the gateway,
For my soul and my spirit said straightway,
“This is not the road to Content.”
That frequents the moneyed world's mart;
But the greed, and the grasping and wrong,
Left me only one wish—to depart.
And sickened, and saddened at heart,
I hurried away from the gateway,
For my soul and my spirit said straightway,
“This is not the road to Content.”
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Then weary in body and brain,
An overgrown path I detected,
And I said, “I will hide with my pain
In this by-way, unused and neglected.”
Lo! it led to the realm God selected
To crown with His best gifts of beauty,
And through the great pathway of duty
I came to the Land of Content.
An overgrown path I detected,
And I said, “I will hide with my pain
In this by-way, unused and neglected.”
Lo! it led to the realm God selected
To crown with His best gifts of beauty,
And through the great pathway of duty
I came to the Land of Content.
| Poetical works of Ella Wheeler Wilcox | |