Classic Poem

I am a woman, with a woman's parts,
And of love I bear children.
In the days of bearing is my body weak,
But why because I do you service, should you call me slave?

I am a woman in my speech and gait,
I have no beard (I'll take no blame for that!)
In many things are you and I apart,
But there are regions where we coincide,
Where law for one is law for both.

There is the sexless part of me that is my mind.

You calculate the distance of a star,
I, thanks to this free age, can count as well,
And by the very processes you use.
When we think differently of two times two,
I'll own a universal mastery in you! —

Now of marriage, —
In marriage there are many mansions,
(This has been said of Heaven).
Shall you rule all the houses of your choice
Because of manhood or because of strength?
If I must own your manhood synonym for every strength,
Then must I lie.

If sex is a criterion for power, and never strength,
Who do we gain by union?
I lose all, while nothing worthy is so gained by you,
O most blessed bond!

Because of marriage, I have motherhood.
That is much, and yet not all!
By the same miracle that makes me mother
Are you father.

It is a double honour!
Are you content to be from henceforth only father,
And in no other way a man?
A fantastic creature like a thing of dreams
That has so great an eye it has no head.
I am not mother to abstract Childhood, but to my son,
And how can I serve my son, but to be much myself?

My motherhood must boast some qualities,
For as motherhood is diverse
So shall men be many charactered
And show variety, as this world needs.

Shall I for ever brush my infant's hair?
Cumber his body in conceited needle-work?
Or shall I save some pains till he is grown?
Show him the consolation of mathematics
And let him laugh with me when I am old?

If he is my true son,
He will find more joy in number and laughter
Than in all these other things.

Why should dull custom make my son my enemy
So that the privilege of his manhood is to leave my house?
You would hold knowledge from me because I am a mother,
Rather for this reason let me be wise, and very strong, —
Power should be added to power.

And now of love! —
There are many loves.
There is love, which is physiology,
And love, which has no more matter in it than is in the mind.
There is spiritual love, and there is good affection.
All these loves women need, and most of all the last.

Kiss me sometimes in the light.
Women have body's pain of body's love.
Let me have flowers sometimes, and always joy.
And sometimes let me take your hand and kiss you honestly.
Losing nothing in dignity by frank love
If I must fly in love and follow in life,
Doing both things falsely,
Then am I a mime ,
I have no free soul.
Man! For your sake and for mine, and for the sake of future men,
Let me speak my mind in life and love.
Be strong for love of a strong mate,
Do not ask my weakness as a sacrifice of power.
When you deny me justice
I feel as if my body were in grip of a cold octopus,
While my heart is crushed to stone.

This rapture have I of pretence!