

E-text prepared by Chris Curnow, Christina, Joseph Cooper, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)



MAURINE AND OTHER POEMS

by

ELLA WHEELER WILCOX







W. B. Conkey Company
Chicago

Copyright, 1888
by Ella Wheeler Wilcox




_I step across the mystic border-land,_
_And look upon the wonder-world of Art._
_How beautiful, how beautiful its hills!_
_And all its valleys, how surpassing fair!_

_The winding paths that lead up to the heights_
_Are polished by the footsteps of the great._
_The mountain-peaks stand very near to God:_
_The chosen few whose feet have trod thereon_
_Have talked with Him, and with the angels walked._

_Here are no sounds of discord--no profane_
_Or senseless gossip of unworthy things--_
_Only the songs of chisels and of pens._
_Of busy brushes, and ecstatic strains_
_Of souls surcharged with music most divine._
_Here is no idle sorrow, no poor grief_
_For any day or object left behind--_
_For time is counted pre