Living

Concentration

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1850–1919

From Poems of Sentiment (1909)

Living

The age is too diffusive. Time and Force
Are frittered out and bring no satisfaction.
The way seems lost to straight determined action.
Like shooting stars that zig-zag from their course
We wander from our orbit’s pathway; spoil
The rôle we’re fitted for, to fail in twenty.
Bring empty measures, that were shaped for plenty,
At last as guerdon for a life of toil.
There’s lack of greatness in this generation
Because no more man centres on one thought.
We know this truth, and yet we heed it not:
The secret of success is Concentration.

MLA

Wilcox, Ella Wheeler. “Concentration.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/wilcox/682/.

Chicago

Wilcox, Ella Wheeler. “Concentration.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/wilcox/682/.

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