Yesterdays

"Yesterdays" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox is a collection of poems written in the early 20th century. This reflective work explores themes of nostalgia, love, loss, and the passage of time through a series of heartfelt verses, capturing the essence of human emotions and experiences. The poet addresses the complexities of youth and maturity, examining how the memories of love and sorrow weave into the fabric of life. The beginning of "Yesterdays" presents a foreword in which Wilcox expresses her desire to share poems from her early youth that encapsulate the fleeting sorrows and joys of that time. She reflects on the nature of youth and the tendency to indulge in despair, albeit from a perspective that recognizes the resilience of life. The initial poems convey strong emotions, often contrasting youthful vigor with the weight of accumulated experiences, as the speaker grapples with the lessons of love and the bittersweet nature of memory. Through lyrical expressions, Wilcox sets the tone for the exploration of these poignant themes in subsequent verses. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Ella Wheeler Wilcox was an American author and poet. Her works include the collection Poems of Passion and the poem "Solitude", which contains the lines "Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone." Her autobiography, The Worlds and I, was published in 1918, a year before her death.