The Summons by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Name: The Summons
Author: Ella Wheeler Wilcox

"The Summons" is a lyric poem in which the speaker expresses a fervent desire to die at the height of youth and vitality rather than endure the slow diminishment of age and suffering. The poem opens with a pair of nature comparisons that establish its central argument: a leaf that falls first from the tree is preferable to one that clings on alone through a bleak November, and a flower that drops in full bloom is more fortunate than one that withers into autumn's gloom. These images frame early death not as tragedy but as grace — a timely, beautiful release. From this premise, the speaker turns inward. Standing in what she describes as the perfect vigor of youth, with a light heart and a world that seems bright and promising, she declares her wish to depart from earthly life as cleanly and naturally as a green leaf separates from a branch. The longing is not born of despair but of a desire for perfection — to exit at the summit rather than descend from it. The poem's title gives name to what the speaker awaits: the summons, God's call to death. She imagines receiving it on a golden June morning, when birds sing with wild joy and skies are cloudless. The setting is deliberately radiant and full — she does not want to be called in winter or twilight, in grief or sickness, but at the most alive moment the world can offer. She explicitly rejects the alternative. She does not want to wait for faded eyes and hair, for the accumulation of heartache and care that aging brings. She would rather break suddenly in mid-song, or collapse in a vigorous stride, like a full-blown flower that drops intact from the stalk — whole and blooming at the moment of departure. The final stanza resolves the poem's longing into theological terms. The speaker wishes to move from earth's perfection directly into what she calls the endless June above — an eternal summer, a noon of Immortal Love. Death, reframed this way, is not loss but translation: from the fullness of living to a still greater fullness, from temporal joy to timeless joy. The poem's emotional logic is consistent and unashamed. Wilcox makes no apology for the wish and frames it neither as morbid nor as escapist. The speaker is not fleeing life — she loves it, which is precisely why she wants to leave it before it diminishes. The summons, when it comes, should find her at her best. The poem argues, through its accumulated natural imagery, that this is not merely a personal preference but a law written into nature itself: the leaf falls, the flower drops, and the wisest thing is to go when you are most fully yourself.

By Ella Wheeler Wilcox · First published 1873 · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Death Poetry, Spiritual Poetry · 394 words

First lines

I think the leaf would sooner / Be the first to break away, / Than to hang alone in the orchard / In the bleak November day. / And I think the fate of the flower / That falls in the midst of bloom / Is sweeter than if it lingered / To die in the autumn's gloom.

Some glowing, golden morning / In the heart of the summer time, / As I stand in the perfect vigor / And strength of my youth's glad prime; / When my heart is light and happy, / And the world seems bright to me, / I would like to drop from this earth-life, / As a green leaf drops from the tree.

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The Summons is listed on Textopian as a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, dated 1873 CE.

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Work type: Poem
Author: Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Date: 1873 CE
Language: English
Genres: Lyric Poetry, Death Poetry, Spiritual Poetry, Romantic Poetry, Philosophical Poetry
Length: 394 words
Structure: 1 section, 5 paragraphs
Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)

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Genres

Lyric Poetry — The poem is a personal and emotional expression of the speaker's innermost desires and reflections, employing a first-person voice characteristic of the lyric tradition.
Death Poetry — Mortality and death form the central preoccupation, with the speaker expressing a desire to die young in their prime rather than experience aging and decline.
Spiritual Poetry — Religious imagery and the invocation of God permeate the work, with the sought 'summons' representing a divine call to the afterlife and spiritual transcendence to 'Immortal Love.'
Romantic Poetry — The tone reflects Romantic ideals through its idealization of youth, beauty, and the aesthetic valorization of an early, beautiful death over prolonged diminishment.