Classic and Contemporary Poetry
WOMAN'S HARD FATE, by A LADY [PSEUD.] First Line: How wretched is a woman's fate Last Line: "to a slave's fetters add a slavish mind, / that I may cheerfully your will obey" Alternate Author Name(s): A Lady Subject(s): Women's Rights; Feminism | ||||||||
How wretched is a woman's fate, No happy change her fortune knows; Subject to man in every state, How can she then be free from woes? In youth, a father's stern command And jealous eyes control her will; A lordly brother watchful stands To keep her closer captive still. The tyrant husband next appears, With awful and contracted brow; No more a lover's form he wears: Her slave's become her sovereign now. If from this fatal bondage free, And not by marriage-chains confined, But, blessed with single life, can see A parent fond, a brother kind; Yet love usurps her tender breast, And paints a phoenix to her eyes: Some darling youth disturbs her rest, And painful sighs in secret rise. Oh cruel powers, since you've designed That man, vain man, should bear the sway, To a slave's fetters add a slavish mind, That I may cheerfully your will obey. | 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 TIS A LITTLE JOURNEY by ANONYMOUS |
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