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...AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM by RICHARD ALDINGTON THEN AND NOW by CECIL DAY LEWIS A MAN'S VOCATION IS NOBODY'S BUSINESS by JAMES GALVIN TO SAMUEL COLERIDGE UPON HEARING HIS 'SOME I FEEL LIKE A MOTHERLESS..' by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON DEEP IN THE QUIET WOOD by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: JONAS KEENE by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |