Yesterdays

"Yesterdays" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox is a collection of poems from the early 1900s that dives into feelings of longing, affection, grief, and the ever-moving river of time through touching poetry, perfectly capturing what it means to be human. The poet examines the ups and downs of being both young and old and looks at how love and sadness shape our lives. The book starts with Wilcox wanting to share poems from when she was younger, poems that show the short sorrows and happiness from that time. She thinks about what it is like to be young and to sometimes feel sad, but she also sees how strong life really is. The first poems show big feelings, with youth against the heavy load of life, as the speaker struggles with lessons about love and how memories can be sweet and sad. Through beautiful language, Wilcox prepares the reader to think about these deep topics in the poems that follow next.