Classic Poem

To all you friends who've gathered here tonight,
And paid for this address with solid money,
I want to say — don't look for wild delight —
This lecture isn't funny!

It is an earnest lecture, written straight
From out one woman's heart to enter many;
And if you ask excuse for facts, I state —
Alas! I haven't any!

For facts are stubborn things, and it is true,
In spite of chivalry and poem and story,
That so far, in the race of which are you —
Man has the glory.

The glory and the shame! He did the deeds
Which fill the world with beauty, power, and wonder;
He kept supplied the wider human needs, —
And kept us under!

And what I wish to urge, to thinking minds,
Is that the race will thrive, both man and woman,
When every baby in its parents find,
That both are Human!