Withholding justice! Pitiless and plain
Your record stands down all the brightening ages —
You fought with progress, but you fought in vain.
REASSURANCE
Can you imagine nothing better, brother.
Than that which you have always had before?
Have you been so content with “wife and mother,”
You dare hope nothing more?
Have you forever prized her, praised her, sung her,
The happy queen of a most happy reign?
Never dishonored her, despised her, flung her
Derision and disdain?
Go ask the literature of all the ages!
Books that were written before women read!
Pagan and Christian, satirists and sages —
Read what the world has said.
There was no power on earth to bid you slacken
The generous hand that painted her disgrace!
There was no shame on earth too black to blacken
That much-praised woman-face.
Eve and Pandora! — always you begin it —
The ancients called her Sin and Shame and Death.
“There is no evil without woman in it,”
The modern proverb saith.
She has been yours in uttermost possession —
Your slave, your mother, your well-chosen bride —
And you have owned in million-fold confession,
You were not satisfied.
Peace then! Fear not the coming woman, brother.
Owning herself, she giveth all the more.
She shall be better woman, wife and mother
Than man hath known before.
THE SOCIALIST AND THE
SUFFRAGIST
Said the Socialist to the Suffragist:
“My cause is greater than yours!
You only work for a Special Class,
We for the gain of the General Mass,
Which every good ensures!”
Said the Suffragist to the Socialist:
“You underrate my Cause!
While women remain a Subject Class,
You never can move the General Mass,
With your Economic Laws!”
Said the Socialist to the Suffragist:
“You misinterpret facts!
There is no room for doubt or schism
In Economic Determinism —
It governs all our acts!”
Said the Suffragist to the Socialist:
“You men will always find
That this old world will never move
More swiftly in its ancient groove
While women stay behind!”
“A lifted world lifts women up,”
The Socialist explained.
“You cannot lift the world at all
While half of it is kept so small,”
The Suffragist maintained.
The world awoke, and tartly spoke:
“Your work is all the same:
Work together or work apart,
Work, each of you, with all your heart —
Just get into the game!”
THE MALINGERER
Exempt! She “does not have to work!”
So might one talk
Defending long, bedridden ease,
Weak yielding ankles, flaccid knees,
With, “I don’t have to walk!”
Not have to work. Why not? Who gave
Free pass to you?
You’re housed and fed and taught and dressed
By age-long labor of the rest —
Work other people do!
What do you give in honest pay
For clothes and food? —
Then as a shield, defence, excuse,
She offers her exclusive use —
Her function — Motherhood!
Is motherhood a trade you make
A living by?
And does the wealth you so may use,
Squander, accumulate, abuse,
Show motherhood as high?
Or does the motherhood of those
Whose toil endures,
The farmers’ and mechanics’ wives,
Hard working servants all their lives —
Deserve less price than yours?
We’re not exempt! Man’s world runs on,
Motherless, wild;
Our servitude and long duress,
Our shameless, harem idleness,
Both fail to serve the child.
THE ANTI-SUFFRAGISTS
Fashionable women in luxurious homes,
With men to feed them, clothe them, pay their bills,
Bow, doff the hat, and fetch the handkerchief;
Hostess or guest; and always so supplied
With graceful deference and courtesy;
Surrounded by their horses, servants, dogs —
These tell us they have all the rights they want.
Successful women who have won their way
Alone, with strength of their unaided arm,
Or helped by friends, or softly climbing up
By the sweet aid of “woman’s influence”;
Successful any way, and caring naught
For any other woman’s unsuccess —
These tell us they have all the rights they want.
Religious women of the feebler sort —
Not the religion of a righteous world,
A free, enlightened, upward-reaching world,
But the religion that considers life
As something to back out of! — whose ideal
Is to renounce, submit, and sacrifice,
Counting on being patted on the head
And given a high chair when they get to heaven —
These tell us they have all the rights they want.
Ignorant women — college bred sometimes,
But ignorant of life’s realities
And principles of righteous government,
And how the privileges they enjoy
Were won with blood and tears by those before —
Those they condemn, whose ways they now oppose;
Saying, “Why not let well enough alone?
Our world is very pleasant as it is” —
These tell us they have all the rights they want.
And selfish women — pigs in petticoats —
Rich, poor, wise, unwise, top or bottom round,
But all sublimely innocent of thought,
And guiltless of ambition, save the one
Deep, voiceless aspiration — to be fed!
These have no use for rights or duties more.
Duties today are more than they can meet,
And law insures their right to clothes and food —
These tell us they have all the rights they want.
And, more’s the pity, some good women, too;
Good, conscientious women with ideas;
Who think — or think they think — that woman’s cause
Is best advanced by letting it alone;
That she somehow is not a human thing,
And not to be helped on by human means,
Just added to humanity — an “L” —
A wing, a branch, an extra, not mankind —
These tell us they have all the rights they want.
And out of these has come a monstrous thing,
A strange, down-sucking whirlpool of disgrace,
Women uniting against womanhood,
And using that great name to hide their sin!
Vain are their words as that old king’s command
Who set his will against the rising tide.
But who shall measure the historic shame
Of these poor traitors — traitors are they all —
To great Democracy and Womanhood!
THE “ANTI” AND THE FEY
The fly upon the Cartwheel
Thought she made all the Sound;
He thought he made the Cart go on �
�
And made the wheels go round.
The Fly upon the Cartwheel
Has won undying fame
For Conceit that was colossal,
And Ignorance the same.
But today he has a Rival
As we roll down History’s Track —
For the “Anti” on the Cartwheel
Thinks she makes the Wheels go back!
TO THE INDIFFERENT WOMEN
A SESTINA
You who are happy in a thousand homes,
Or overworked therein, to a dumb peace;
Whose souls are wholly centered in the life
Of that small group you personally love —
Who told you that you need not know or care
About the sin and sorrow of the world?
Do you believe the sorrow of the world
Does not concern you in your little homes?
That you are licensed to avoid the care
And toil for human progress, human peace,
And the enlargement of our power of love
Until it covers every field of life?
The one first duty of all human life
Is to promote the progress of the world
In righteousness, in wisdom, truth and love;
And you ignore it, hidden in your homes,
Content to keep them in uncertain peace,
Content to leave all else without your care.
Yet you are mothers! And a mother’s care
Is the first step towards friendly human life.
Life where all nations in untroubled peace
Unite to raise the standard of the world
And make the happiness we seek in homes
Spread everywhere in strong and fruitful love.
You are content to keep that mighty love
In its first steps forever; the crude care
Of animals for mate and young and homes,
Instead of pouring it abroad in life,
Its mighty current feeding all the world
Till every human child shall grow in peace.
You cannot keep your small domestic peace,
Your little pool of undeveloped love,
While the neglected, starved, unmothered world
Struggles and fights for lack of mother’s care,
And its tempestuous, bitter, broken life
Beats in upon you in your selfish homes.
We all may have our homes in joy and peace
When woman’s life, in its rich power of love
Is joined with man’s to care for all the world.
When the woman suffrage argument first stood upon its legs.
They answered it with cabbages, they answered it with eggs.
They answered it with ridicule, they answered it with scorn,
They thought it a monstrosity that should not have been born.
When the woman suffrage argument grew vigorous and wise,
And was not to be answered by these opposite replies,
They turned their opposition into reasoning severe
Upon the limitations of our God-appointed sphere.
We were told of disabilities — a long array of these,
Till one could think that womanhood was merely a disease;
And “the maternal sacrifice” was added to the plan
Of the various sacrifices we have always made — to man.
Religionists and scientists, in amity and bliss,
However else they disagreed, could all agree on this,
And the gist of all their discourse, when you got down in it,
Was — we could not have the ballot because we were not fit!
They would not hear the reason, they would not fairly yield,
They would not own their arguments were beaten in the field;
But time passed on, and someway, we need not ask them how,
Whatever ails those arguments — we do not hear them now!
You may talk of suffrage now with an educated man,
And he agrees with all you say, as sweetly as he can:
‘T would be better for us all, of course, if womanhood was free;
But “the women do not want it” — and so it must not be!
‘T is such a tender thoughtfulness! So exquisite a care!
Not to pile on our frail shoulders what we do not wish to bear!
But, oh, most generous brother! Let us look a little more —
Have we women always wanted what you gave to us before?
Did we ask for veils and harems in the Oriental races?
Did we beseech to be “unclean,” shut out of sacred places?
Did we beg for scolding bridles and ducking stools to come?
And clamor for the beating stick no thicker than your thumb?
Did we ask to be forbidden from all the trades that pay?
Did we claim the lower wages for a man’s full work today?
Have we petitioned for the laws wherein our shame is shown:
That not a woman’s child — nor her own body — is her own?
What women want has never been a strongly acting cause,
When woman has been wronged by man in churches, customs, laws;
Why should he find this preference so largely in his way,
When he himself admits the right of what we ask today?
SONG FOR EQUAL SUFFRAGE
Day of hope and day of glory! After slavery and woe,
Comes the dawn of woman’s freedom, and the light shall grow and grow
Until every man and woman equal liberty shall know,
In Freedom marching on!
Woman’s right is woman’s duty! For our share in life we call!
Our will it is not weakened and our power it is not small.
We are half of every nation! We are mothers of them all!
In Wisdom marching on!
Not for self but larger service has our cry for freedom grown,
There is crime, disease and warfare in a world of men alone,
In the name of love we’re rising now to serve and save our own,
As Peace comes marching on!
By every sweet and tender tie around our heartstrings curled,
In the cause of nobler motherhood is woman’s flag unfurled,
Till every child shall know the joy and peace of mother’s world —
As Love comes marching on!
We will help to make a pruning hook of every outgrown sword,
We will help to knit the nations in continuing accord,
In humanity made perfect is the glory of the Lord,
As His world goes marching on!
ANOTHER STAR
(Suffrage Campaign Song for California)
TUNE: “Buy a Broom.”
There are five a-light before us,
In the flag flying o’er us,
There’ll be six on next election —
We bring a new star!
We are coming like the others,
Free Sisters, Free Brothers,
In the pride of our affection
For California.
CHORUS: A ballot for the Lady!
For the Home and for the Baby!
Come, vote ye for the Lady,
The Baby, the Home!
Star of Hope and Star of Beauty!
Of Freedom! Of Duty!
Star of childhood’s new protection,
That rises so high!
We will work for it together
In the golden, gay weather,
And we’ll have it next election,
Or we will know why.
CHORUS: A ballot for the Lady!
For the Home and for the Baby!
Come, vote ye for the Lady,
The Baby, the Home!
SHE WHO IS TO COME
A woman — in so far as she beholdeth
Her one Beloved’s face;
A mother — with a great heart that enfoldeth
The children of the Race;
&nb
sp; A body, free and strong, with that high beauty
That comes of perfect use, is built thereof;
A mind where Reason ruleth over Duty,
And Justice reigns with Love;
A self-poised, royal soul, brave, wise and tender,
No longer blind and dumb;
A Human Being, of an unknown splendor.
Is she who is to come!
MISCELLANEOUS POETRY
CONTENTS
FULL MOTHERHOOD
TO MOTHERS
WE EAT AT HOME
SPECIAL DRY TOAST
CHILD LABOR
EN BANC
A PSALM OF LIVES
I WOULD FAIN DIE A DRY DEATH
A DIET UNDESIRED
WHY? TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
THE INTERNATIONALIST
AN ARMY WITH BANNERS
THE GUNMAN
HIGH SOVEREIGNTY
THIS IS A LADY’S HAT
MRS. NOAH
THE CRIPPLE
A PROTEST
PIKERS
WOMEN OF 1920
MORE FEMALES OF THE SPECIES
THE SPEAKER’S SIN
THE LOVE OF HUMAN KIND
ANOTHER CREED
THE FOOL KILLER
KITCHEN WOMEN
THE HOUSEWIFE
THE PROPOSAL
ODE TO THE COOK
THE ETERNAL MOTHER TO THE BACHELOR MAID
TWO CALLINGS
LIMITING LIFE
A VANDAL
THE RABBIT, THE RHINOCEROS AND I
THE OYSTER AND THE STARFISH
THE WEEPING NAUTILUS
THE DAILY SQUID
SOME NORDICS
WHY NATURE LAUGHS
TWIGS
THE FRONT WAVE
QUEER PEOPLE
THE EARTH, THE WORLD, AND I
THE FLAG OF PEACE
SONG FOR THE WORLD’S FLAG
THE KINGDOM
HAPPINESS
THE REAL RELIGION
A CENTRAL SUN
BEGIN NOW
HAPPY DAY
NOBLESSE OBLIGE
WHERE WOMEN MEET
TO THE INDIFFERENT WOMAN
ONE GIRL OF MANY
THE DEPARTING HOUSEMAID
THE PAST PARENT & THE COMING CHILD
MATRIATISM
THE SOURCE
I AM HUMAN
THE COMING DAY
THIS IS THE YEAR
THOUGHTS AND FACTS
THE HUMAN LAW
THE PURPOSE
THE PRIMAL POWER
TWO PRAYERS
WHATEVER IS
WINGS
WORSHIP
THE ARTIST
MY VIEW, 1881.
LITTLE LEAFY BROTHERS
Complete Works of Charlotte Perkins Gilman Page 185
