Of life, and Sure of Getting There.
Patient with Nature’s long delay,
Proud of our conscious upward swing;
Not sorry for a single day,
And Not Afraid of Anything!
With Motherhood at last awake —
With Power to Do and Light to See —
Women may now begin to Make
The People we are Meant to Be!
WOMEN OF TO-DAY
You women of today who fear so much
The women of the future, showing how
The dangers of her course are such and such —
What are you now?
Mothers and Wives and Housekeepers, forsooth!
Great names, you cry, full scope to rule and please.
Room for wise age and energetic youth! —
But are you these?
Housekeepers? Do you then, like those of yore,
Keep house with power and pride, with grace and ease?
No, you keep servants only! What is more —
You don’t keep these!
Wives, say you? Wives! Blessed indeed are they
Who hold of love the everlasting keys,
Keeping their husbands’ hearts! Alas the day!
You don’t keep these!
And mothers? Pitying Heaven! Mark the cry
From cradle death-beds! Mothers on their knees!
Why, half the children born, as children, die!
You don’t keep these!
And still the wailing babies come and go,
And homes are waste, and husband’s hearts fly far;
There is no hope until you dare to know
The thing you are!
BOYS WIFE BE BOYS
“Boys will be boys,” and boys have had their day;
Boy-mischief and boy-carelessness and noise
Extenuated all, allowed, excused and smoothed away,
Each duty missed, each damaging wild act,
By this meek statement of unquestioned fact —
Boys will be boys!
Now, “women will be women.” Mark the change;
Calm motherhood in place of boisterous youth;
No warfare now; to manage and arrange,
To nurture with wise care, is woman’s way,
In peace and fruitful industry her sway,
In love and truth.
FOR FEAR
For fear of prowling beasts at night
They blocked the cave;
Women and children hid from sight,
Men scarce more brave.
For fear of warrior’s sword and spear
They barred the gate;
Women and children lived in fear,
Men lived in hate.
For fear of criminals today
We lock the door;
Women and children still to stay
Hid evermore.
Come out! Ye need no longer hide!
What fear you now?
No wolf nor lion waits outside —
Only a cow.
Come out! The world approaches peace,
War nears its end;
No warrior watches your release —
Only a friend.
Come out! The night of crime has fled —
Day is begun;
Here is no criminal to dread —
Only your son.
The world, half yours, demands your care,
Waken and come!
Make it a woman’s world; safe, fair,
Garden and home.
MOTHER TO CHILD
How best can I serve thee, my child! My child!
Flesh of my flesh and dear heart of my heart!
Once thou wast within me — I held thee — I fed thee —
By the force of my loving and longing I led thee —
Now we are apart!
I may blind thee with kisses and crush with embracing,
Thy warm mouth in my neck and our arms interlacing;
But here in my body my soul lives alone,
And thou answerest me from a house of thine own —
That house which I builded!
Which we builded together, thy father and I;
In which thou must live, O my darling, and die!
Not one stone can I alter, one atom relay —
Not to save or defend thee or help thee to stay —
That gift is completed!
How best can I serve thee? O child, if they knew
How my heart aches with loving! How deep and
how true,
How brave and enduring, how patient, how strong,
How longing for good and how fearful of wrong,
Is the love of thy mother!
Could I crown thee with riches! Surround, overflow thee
With fame and with power till the whole world should know thee;
With wisdom and genius to hold the world still,
To bring laughter and tears, joy and pain, at thy will,
Still — thou mightst not be happy!
Such have lived — and in sorrow.
The greater the mind
The wider and deeper the grief it can find.
The richer, the gladder, the more thou canst feel
The keen stings that a lifetime is sure to reveal.
O my child! Must thou suffer?
Is there no way my life can save thine from a pain?
Is the love of a mother no possible gain?
No labor of Hercules — search for the Grail
No way for this wonderful love to avail?
God in Heaven — O teach me!
My prayer has been answered. The pain thou must bear
Is the pain of the world’s life which thy life must share.
Thou art one with the world — though I love thee the best;
And to save thee from pain I must save all the rest —
Well — with God’s help I’ll do it.
Thou art one with the rest. I must love thee in them.
Thou wilt sin with the rest; and thy mother must stem
The world’s sin. Thou wilt weep, and thy mother must dry
The tears of the world lest her darling should cry.
I will do it — God helping!
And I stand not alone. I will gather a band
Of all loving mothers from land unto land.
Our children are part of the world! Do ye hear?
They are one with the world — we must hold them all dear!
Love all for the child’s sake!
For the sake of my child I must hasten to save
All the children on earth from the jail and the grave.
For so, and so only, I lighten the share
Of the pain of the world that my darling must bear —
Even so, and so only!
A QUESTION
Why is it, God, that mother’s hearts are made
So very deep and wide?
How does it help the world that we should hold
Such welling floods of pain till we are old,
Because when we were young one grave was laid —
One baby died?
THE HOUSEWIFE
Here is the House to hold me — cradle of all the race;
Here is my lord and my love, here are my children dear —
Here is the House enclosing, the dear-loved dwelling place;
Why should I ever weary for aught that I find not here?
Here for the hours of the day and the hours of the night;
Bound with the bands of Duty, rivetted tight;
Duty older than Adam — Duty that saw
Acceptance utter and hopeless in the eyes of the serving squaw.
Food and the serving of food — that is my daylong care;
What and when we shall eat, what and how we shall wear;
Soiling and cleaning of things — that is my task in the main —
Soil them and clean them and soil them — soil them and clean them again.
To work at my trade by the dozen and never a trade to know;
To plan like a Chinese puzzle — fitting and changing so;
To think of a thousand details, each in a thousand ways;
For my own immediate people and a possible love and praise.
My mind is trodden in circles, tiresome, narrow and hard,
Useful, commonplace, private — simply a small backyard;
And I the Mother of Nations! — Blind their struggle and vain! —
I cover the earth with my children — each with a housewife’s brain.
WEDDED BLISS
“O come and be my mate!” said the Eagle to the Hen;
“I love to soar, but then
I want my mate to rest
Forever in the nest!”
Said the Hen, “I cannot fly,
I have no wish to try,
But I joy to see my mate careening through the sky!”
They wed, and cried, “Ah, this is Love, my own!”
And the Hen sat, the Eagle soared, alone.
“O come and be my mate!” said the Lion to the Sheep;
“My love for you is deep!
I slay, a Lion should,
But you are mild and good!”
Said the sheep, “I do no ill —
Could not, had I the will — .
But I joy to see my mate pursue, devour and kill.”
They wed and cried, “Ah, this is Love, my own!”
And the Sheep browsed, the Lion prowled, alone.
“O come and be my mate!” said the Salmon to the Clam;
“You are not wise, but I am.
I know sea and stream as well,
You know nothing but your shell.”
Said the Clam, “I’m slow of motion,
But my love is all devotion,
And I joy to have my mate traverse lake and stream and ocean!”
They wed, and cried, “Ah, this is Love, my own!”
And the Clam sucked, the Salmon swam, alone.
FEMALES
The female fox she is a fox;
The female whale a whale;
The female eagle holds her place
As representative of race
As truly as the male.
The mother hen doth scratch for her chicks,
And scratch for herself beside;
The mother cow doth nurse her calf,
Yet fares as well as her other half
In the pasture free and wide.
The female bird doth soar in air;
The female fish doth swim;
The fleet-foot mare upon the course
Doth hold her own with the flying horse —
Yea and she beateth him!
One female in the world we find
Telling a different tale.
It is the female of our race,
Who holds a parasitic place
Dependent on the male.
Not so, saith she, ye slander me!
No parasite am I.
I earn my living as a wife;
My children take my very life;
Why should I share in human strife,
To plant and build and buy?
The human race holds highest place
In all the world so wide,
Yet these inferior females wive,
And raise their little ones alive,
And feed themselves beside.
The race is higher than the sex,
Though sex be fair and good;
A Human Creature is your state,
And to be human is more great
Than even womanhood!
The female fox she is a fox;
The female whale a whale;
The female eagle holds her place
As representative of race
As truly as the male.
WE AS WOMEN
There’s a cry in the air about us —
We hear it before, behind —
Of the way in which “We, as women,”
Are going to lift mankind!
With our white frocks starched and ruffled,
And our soft hair brushed and curled —
Hats off! for “We, as women,”
Are coming to save the world.
Fair sisters, listen one moment —
And perhaps you’ll pause for ten:
The business of women as women
Is only with men as men!
What we do, “We, as women,”
We have done all through our life;
The work that is ours as women
Is the work of mother and wife.
But to elevate public opinion,
And to lift up erring man,
Is the work of the Human Being;
Let us do it — if we can.
But wait, warm-hearted sisters —
Not quite so fast, so far.
Tell me how we are going to lift a thing
Any higher than we are!
We are going to “purify politics,”
And to “elevate the press.”
We enter the foul paths of the world
To sweeten and cleanse and bless.
To hear the high things we are going to do,
And the horrors of man we tell,
One would think, “We, as women,” were angels,
And our brothers were fiends of hell.
We, that were born of one mother,
And reared in the self-same place,
In the school and the church together,
We of one blood, one race!
Now then, all forward together!
But remember, every one,
That ’tis not by feminine innocence
The work of the world is done.
The world needs strength and courage,
And wisdom to help and feed —
When, “We, as women” bring these to man,
We shall lift the world indeed.
GIRLS OF TO-DAY
Girls of today! Give ear!
Never since time began
Has come to the race of man
A year, a day, an hour,
So full of promise and power
As the time that now is here!
Never in all the lands
Was there a power so great,
To move the wheels of state,
To lift up body and mind,
To waken the deaf and blind,
As the power that is in your hands!
Here at the gates of gold
You stand in the pride of youth,
Strong in courage and truth,
Stirred by a force kept back
Through centuries long and black,
Armed with a power threefold!
First: You are makers of men!
Then Be the things you preach!
Let your own greatness teach!
When Mothers like this you see
Men will be strong and free —
Then, and not till then!
Second: Since Adam fell,
Have you not heard it said
That men by women are led?
True is the saying — true!
See to it what you do!
See that you lead them well.
Third: You have work of your own!
Maid and mother and wife,
Look in the face of life!
There are duties you owe the race!
Outside your dwelling-place
There is work for you alone!
Maid and mother and wife,
See your own work be done!
Be worthy a noble son!
Help man in the upward way!
Truly, a girl today
Is the strongest thing in life!
WOMEN TO MEN
Dear father, from my cradle I acknowledge
All your wise kindness, tender care, and love,
Through days of kindergarten, school and college.
Now there is one gift lacking — one above
All o
ther gifts of God, this highest trust is,
The one great gift, beyond all power and pelf —
Give me my freedom, father; give me Justice,
That I may guard my children and myself.
My brother, you and I were reared together;
We played together, even-handed quite;
We went to school in every kind of weather,
Studied and ranked together as was right.
We work together now and earn our living,
You know how equal is the work we do;
Come, brother, with the love you’re always giving,
Give justice! It’s for me as well as you.
And you, my lover, kneeling here before me
With tender eyes that burn, warm lips that plead,
Protesting that you worship, aye, adore me;
Begging my love as life’s supremest meed,
Vowing to make me happy. Ah, how dare you!
Freedom and happiness have both one key!
Lover and husband, by the love I bear you,
Give justice! I can love you better, free!
Son my own son! Man-child that once was lying
All rosy, tender, helpless on my breast.
Your strength all dimples, your stern voice but crying,
Looking to me for comfort, food and rest,
Asking your life of me, and not another —
And asking not in vain till life be done —
Oh, my boy-baby! Is it I, your mother,
Who comes to ask of justice from her son?
Now to the voter — tax-payer (or shirker),
Please lay your private feelings on the shelf;
O Man-at-large! Friend! Comrade! Fellow-worker;
I am a human being like yourself.
I’m not your wife and mother. Can’t be, whether
I would or not: each to his own apart;
But in the world we’re people altogether —
Suffrage is not a question of the heart.
Son — Father — Brother — Lover unsupplanted —
We’ll talk at home. This thing concerns the nation;
A point of justice which is to be granted
By men to women who are no relation.
Perceive this fact, as salient as a steeple,
Please try to argue from it if you can;
Women have standing-room on earth as people
Outside of their relation to some man.
As wife and sweetheart, daughter, sister, mother,
Each woman privately her views explains;
As people of America — no other —
We claim the right our government maintains.
You who deny it stand in history’s pages
Complete Works of Charlotte Perkins Gilman Page 184
