If all the year was summer time,
And all the aim of life
Was just to lilt on like a rhyme,
Then I would be your wife.
If all the days were August days,
And crowned with golden weather,
How happy then through green-clad ways
We two could stray together!
If all the nights were moonlit nights,
And we had naught to do
But just to sit and plan delights,
Then I would wed with you.
If life was all a summer fete,
Its soberest pace the “glide,”
Then I would choose you for my mate,
And keep you at my side.
But winter makes full half the year,
And labor half of life,
And all the laughter and good cheer
Give place to wearing strife.
Days will grow cold, and moons wax old.
And then a heart that’s true
Is better far than grace or gold—
And so, my love, adieu!
I cannot wed with you.
Love Poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Meaning of the Poem ‘An Answer’ by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
In An Answer, Ella Wheeler Wilcox offers a thoughtful and bittersweet reflection on love and reality. The speaker imagines a world of eternal summer, filled with ease, romance, and delight, and admits that in such a world, she would gladly marry her suitor. But life, she reminds him, is not endless sunshine. It includes winter, hardship, and toil. In the face of these truths, she questions the depth and endurance of their love.
The poem is ultimately a rejection, not out of lack of affection, but from a realistic understanding that beauty and charm alone are not enough to sustain love through life’s harsher seasons. She longs for a love that is steadfast and practical, not just charming when days are fair. In recognising the difference, she gently but firmly says goodbye.
