Classic Poem

The man I can when others cannot be—
When they're most mannish, why that's not for me!
(Because I am so modest I'm so frank.
I know how the class-conscious crab my rank).
Now when I'm up in arms others are not,
When I'm most male they are a softish lot.
They puff their chests when I deflate my own.
They stick their jaws out when my own jawbone
Is tucked back in my neck. So there you are!
There is a time to spar and not to spar.
My time to spar is the reverse of men's.
They are often cocky, but when I'm a cock they're hens!
Devil a bit can I catch up with what
I think behind me, or consider hot
What leaves me cold. I cannot be the man
To sport in summer gauntlets of astrakan.
I cannot be the man therefore to be
What a man is as a conventional He.