Classic and Contemporary Poetry
WOMAN!, by GEORGE CRABBE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Place the white man on afric's coast Last Line: And care they soothe and age they cheer. Subject(s): Women | ||||||||
MR. LEDYARD, AS QUOTED BY M. PARKE IN HIS TRAVELS INTO AFRIC. 'To a Woman I never addressed myself in the language of decency and friendship, without receiving a decent and friendly answer. If I was hungry or thirsty, wet or sick, they did not hesitate, like Men, to perform a generous action: in so free and kind a manner did they contribute to my relief, that if I was dry, I drank the sweetest draught; and if hungry, I ate the coarsest morsel with a double relish.' PLACE the white man on Afric's coast, Whose swarthy sons in blood delight, Who of their scorn to Europe boast, And paint their very demons white: There, while the sterner sex disdains To soothe the woes they cannot feel, Woman will strive to heal his pains, And weep for those she cannot heal: Hers is warm pity's sacred glow; From all her stores, she bears a part, And bids the spring of hope re-flow, That languish'd in the fainting heart. 'What though so pale his haggard face, So sunk and sad his looks,' -- she cries; 'And far unlike our nobler race, With crisped locks and rolling eyes; Yet misery marks him of our kind; We see him lost, alone, afraid; And pangs of body, griefs in mind, Pronounce him man, and ask our aid. 'Perhaps in some far-distant shore, There are who in these forms delight; Whose milky features please them more, Than ours of jet thus burnish'd bright; Of such may be his weeping wife, Such children for their sire may call, And if we spare his ebbing life, Our kindness may preserve them all.' Thus her compassion Woman shows, Beneath the line her acts are these; Nor the wide waste of Lapland-snows Can her warm flow of pity freeze: -- 'From some sad land the stranger comes, Where joys, like ours, are never found; Let's soothe him in our happy homes, Where freedom sits, with plenty crown'd. ''Tis good the fainting soul to cheer, To see the famish'd stranger fed; To milk for him the mother-deer, To smooth for him the furry bed. The powers above our Lapland bless With good no other people know; T' enlarge the joys that we possess, By feeling those that we bestow!' Thus in extremes of cold and heat, Where wandering man may trace his kind; Wherever grief and want retreat, In Woman they compassion find; She makes the female breast her seat, And dictates mercy to the mind. Man may the sterner virtues know, Determined justice, truth severe: But female hearts with pity glow, And Woman holds affliction dear; For guiltless wces her sorrows flow, And suffering vice compels her tear; 'Tis hers to soothe the ills below, And bid life's fairer views appear: To Woman's gentle kind we owe What comforts and delights us here; They its gay hopes on youth bestow, And care they soothe and age they cheer. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ARISTOTLE TO PHYLLIS by JOHN HOLLANDER A WOMAN'S DELUSION by SUSAN HOWE JULIA TUTWILER STATE PRISON FOR WOMEN by ANDREW HUDGINS THE WOMEN ON CYTHAERON by ROBINSON JEFFERS TOMORROW by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD LADIES FOR DINNER, SAIPAN by KENNETH KOCH GOODBYE TO TOLERANCE by DENISE LEVERTOV THE BOROUGH: LETTER 22. POOR OF THE BOROUGH. PETER GRIMES by GEORGE CRABBE |
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