I WILL sing of the women who have borne rule, The severe, the swift, the beautiful; I will praise their loftiness of mind That made them too wise to be true or kind; I will sing of their calm injustice loved For the pride it fed and the power it proved. Once in Egypt a girl was queen; Ashamed that her womanhood should be seen, She wore a beard, she called herself king; She was uneasy with governing; She believed a king was greater than she, So she found a king and his mastery. In Smyrna sits a queen to-night Who does not shine by another's light; She has laid her husband on time's dust-heap But for that she holds not her title cheap; New radiance comes on woman by her, New force in woman is seen to stir. She has taken the land and the sea from men; She has shewn men the power of their source again. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...GASCOIGNE'S WOODMANSHIP by GEORGE GASCOIGNE AFTER THE LAST BREATH (J.H. 1813-1904) by THOMAS HARDY I AM THE WAY' by ALICE MEYNELL MONNA INNOMINATA, A SONNET OF SONNETS: 11 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI THE CRICKET by FREDERICK GODDARD TUCKERMAN SONNETS OF MANHOOD: 11. THE GREEK POET IN ENGLAND by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) |