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Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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Poet

The Resume

    (November 5, 1850-October 30, 1919)
    Born in Johnstown, Wisconsin
    Birth name was Ella Wheeler
    Wrote 'Drops of Water' (1872) and 'Poems of Passion' (1883)
    Best known for the opening lines of the poem 'Solitude': 'Laugh, and the world laughs with you/Weep, and you weep alone'

Why she might be annoying:

    She said she had a 'holy horror' of math.
    She used her poems to promote prohibition, spiritualism, Rosicrucianism and the 'New Thought' movement.
    In the novel 'Babbitt,' Sinclair Lewis illustrated the title character's lack of sophistication by having him refer to Wilcox's 'classic poems.'

Why she might not be annoying:

    Her only child died shortly after birth.
    She went to France during WWI to assist the Red Cross.
    She may have been derided by the critics, but she was embraced by the public, with fourteen of her poems included in the anthology 'Best Loved Poems of the American People.' (1936)

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 10 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 7 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 10 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 16 Votes: 87.50% Annoying