Ella Whelle's Poetry Essay

Poetry’s beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It is written with rules and guidelines yet is a versatile piece of literature. Some poets like to bend the rules while others would just write what their heart desired. Ella Wheller Wilcox was one of the poets who loved to write about her beliefs. Ella’s poetry was known as didactic, which the critics looked down upon but her poetry was widely enjoyed and the public did not seem to have the same thoughts as the critics did. In fact her didactic ways is what drew me into her most famous poem, Solitude. Solitude is a simple yet moving poem that shows the reader the fight between good and evil. Wheller shows us in Solitude the constant battle of our inner demons and how to defeat the lesser evil. Ella Wheller Wilcox is born into an artistic family on November 5th 1850 in Johnstown, Wisconsin. She grew up on a farm with her father, Marcus and her mother, Sarah. Marcus prior to his farming career was a music teacher and Sarah always had a passion for literature. Sarah passed this passion on to Ella at a very young age, often reading her
However Ella didn’t receive her fame for the poem until it was reprinted in Poems of Passion later on that year. According to Constantakis, “It was oringally named, ‘The Way of the World’ but remains unknown why the title was changed” (p.g 255). Solitude is a poem celebrating the joy of life but not forgetting the sorrows one may face. It voices that people who are in a happier place must try and reach out to those in a time of need. Critics found this poem to be didactic because of its symbolic lesson and as Constantakis mentions, “ Wilcox was often dispeared for her obvious and simple ryhme schemes.” (p.g.254) Ella always seemed to have this way of thinking of putting out postive energy as it has been previously showed in poems before. Solitude however was influenced through a very specific moment in her