"Artist's Life" by Wheeler Wilcox

 

Artist's Life 

Of all the waltzes the great Strauss wrote,

mad with melody, rhythm--rife

From the very first to the final note,

Give me his 'Artist's Life!'

 

It stirs my blood to my finger ends,

Thrills me and fills me with vague unrest,

And all that is sweetest and saddest blends

Together within my breast.

 

It brings back that night in the dim arcade,

In love's sweet morning and life's best prime,

When the great brass orchestra played and played,

And set our thoughts to rhyme.

 

It brings back that Winter of mad delights,

Of leaping pulses and tripping feet,

And those languid moon-washed Summer nights

When we heard the band in the street.

 

It brings back rapture and glee and glow,

It brings back passion and pain and strife,

And so of all the waltzes I know,

Give me the 'Artist's Life.'

 

For it is so full of the dear old time--

So full of the dear friends I knew.

And under its rhythm, and lilt, and rhyme,

I am always finding--you.

Enjoy the poem with beautiful music

poem video👇

https://youtu.be/oHC2EoCuG2Y

Who wrote the poem "Artist's Life"?

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (November 5, 1850 – October 30, 1919)

Ella Wheeler Wilcox was an American author and poet who wrote “Solitude,” which contains the famous lines “Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone.” Popular among people rather than among literary critics, she often displayed in her poems cheerful and optimistic sentiments in plain and rhyming words. After she married Robert Wilcox in 1884, the couple became interested in spiritualism and promised each other that whoever died first would return and communicate with the other. After her husband died in 1916 after over 30 years of marriage, she was overwhelmed by grief and waited long to hear from her deceased husband in vain. She also believed in reincarnation. She died of cancer in 1919.

"Artist's Life" explanation

The speaker in the poem is addressing the listener (perhaps her beloved) about her love for the song, “Artist’s Life” by Johann Strauss. She loves the music because of all the memories with the listener it brings back and various strong emotions related to those memories. Strauss was an Austrian composer of light music of the 19^th century. Strauss wrote “Artist’s Life” in 1867 after the Austrian army’s defeat in the Battle of Königgrätz against Prussia to uplift the morale of his people.