Two Impressive Poems Worth Contemplating

My previous blog article was about a large steamship, but this post begins with part of a poem about sailboats. It is the third stanza of an impressive poem that I probably heard first as a college freshman. Here are the words of the third stanza of “’Tis the Set of the Sail,” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox:

One ship sails East, / And another West,
By the self-same winds that blow,
'Tis the set of the sails / And not the gales,
That tells the way we go.

Ella Wheeler was born in 1850 and married Robert Wilcox in 1884. He died in 1916, three years before she passed away in 1919 at the age of 69. Ella wrote the powerful poem cited above in 1916, quite possibly while she was grieving over her husband’s death.

Recently, June and I were reading Leif Enger’s novel I Cheerfully Refuse (2024) about Rainy, a man who was sailing a small boat up the west coast of Lake Superior. Rainy’s voyage on that large lake is a good illustration of Ella’s insight that “’Tis the set of the sails, and not the gales, that tells the way we go.”

In Enger’s novel, Rainy learned that by trimming his sails—angling them one way to reach the shore, and another way to follow the long sweep of the coast—he could choose to go ashore to buy supplies or travel north toward Canada, where he wanted to go as he was grieving his wife’s tragic death.  

Thus, Rainy could move through grief and uncertainty with intention rather than just going where the wind blew him. The lake didn’t change, the winds didn’t soften, but his deliberate choices made all the difference. And so it is with all of us as we travel through life.  

Ella also composed another impressive poem in 1909. It was titled “Who is a Christian?” and here are the words of that complete poem:

Who is a Christian in this Christian land / Of many churches and of lofty spires?
Not he who sits in soft upholstered pews / Bought by the profits of unholy greed,
And looks devotion, while he thinks of gain. / Not he who sends petitions from the lips
That lie to-morrow in the street and mart. /Not he who fattens on another's toil,
And flings his unearned riches to the poor, /Or aids the heathen with a lessened wage,
And builds cathedrals with an increased rent.

Christ, with Thy great, sweet, simple creed of love,
How must Thou weary of Earth's 'Christian’ clans,

Who preach salvation through Thy saving blood
While planning slaughter of their fellow men. / Who is a Christian? It is one whose life
Is built on love, on kindness and on faith; / Who holds his brother as his other self;
Who toils for justice, equity and PEACE, / And hides no aim or purpose in his heart
That will not chord with universal good. / Though he be pagan, heretic or Jew,

That man is Christian and beloved of Christ.

It seems that Ella never was a member of a Christian denominational church, but the first part of the poem can be seen as valid criticism of many CINO (Christians in name only) people then as well as of many contemporary MAGA-type Christians now.

The second half of this poem is the kind of faith that we progressive Christians seek—and also acknowledge in the actions of many people who do not self-identify with Christianity.  

There are many, indeed, who toil for “justice, equity and PEACE,” and who seek to do that which will “chord with universal good.” And, yes, no matter if such a person “be pagan, heretic or Jew,” they can also be considered a “Christian and beloved of Christ.”

Although Ella Wheeler Wilcox was not a professing Christian, it is remarkable that she could fathom what it means to be a follower of the universal Christ even by those who don’t consciously know him.

1 John 4:7 (NIV) says that “love comes from God” and that everyone “who loves has been born of God and knows God.” Then the very next verse declares, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

So, what does this say about the MAGA Christians who are hateful toward the immigrants seeking safety/refuge in the U.S. as well as toward LGBTQ people and women who advocate pro-choice? Perhaps 1 John 4:8 applies to them: “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”