Classic and Contemporary Poetry
DEDICATION OF THE COOK, by ANNA WICKHAM Poet's Biography First Line: If any ask why there's no great she-poet Last Line: Will blossom from the ashes of my kitchen! Alternate Author Name(s): Hepburn, Patrick, Mrs. Subject(s): Cooking & Cooks; Women's Rights; Writing & Writers; Feminism | ||||||||
If any ask why there's no great She-Poet, Let me come live with me, and he will know it: If I'd indite an ode or mend a sonnet, I must go choose a dish or tie a bonnet; For she who serves in forced virginity Since I am wedded will not have me free; And those new flowers my garden is so rich in Must die for clammy odors of my kitchen. Yet I had chosen Dian's barrenness I'm not a full woman, and I can't be less, So could I state no certain truth for life, Can I survive and be my good man's wife? Yes! I will make the servant's cause my own That she in pity leave me hours alone So I will tend her mind and feed her wit That she in time have her own joy of it; And count it pride that not a sonnet's spoiled Lacking her choice betwixt the baked and boiled. So those young flowers my garden is so rich in Will blossom from the ashes of my kitchen! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD HEMATITE HEIRLOOM LIVES ON (MAYBE DECEMBER 1980) by ALICE NOTLEY ON THE BEACH by CLARIBEL ALEGRIA FEMINIST POEM NUMBER ONE by ELIZABETH ALEXANDER HYPOCRITE SWIFT by LOUISE BOGAN FOR A GODCHILD, REGINA, ON THE OCCASION OF HER FIRST LOVE by TOI DERRICOTTE HESTER'S SONG by TOI DERRICOTTE |
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