Can you imagine nothing better, brother, <br />Than that which you have always had before? <br />Have you been so content with 'wife and mother,' <br />You dare hope nothing more? <br /> <br />Have you forever prized her, praised her, sung her, <br />The happy queen of a most happy reign? <br />Never dishonored her, despised her, flung her <br />Derision and disdain? <br /> <br />Go ask the literature of all the ages! <br />Books that were written before women read! <br />Pagan and Christian, satirists and sages– <br />Read what the world has said. <br /> <br />There was no power on earth to bid you slacken <br />The generous hand that painted her disgrace! <br />There was no shame on earth too black to blacken <br />That much-praised woman-face. <br /> <br />Eve and Pandora!–always you begin it– <br />The ancients called her Sin and Shame and Death. <br />'There is no evil without woman in it,' <br />The modern proverb saith. <br /> <br />She has been yours in uttermost possession– <br />Your slave, your mother, your well-chosen bride– <br />And you have owned in million-fold confession, <br />You were not satisfied. <br /> <br />Peace then! Fear not the coming woman, brother. <br />Owning herself, she giveth all the more. <br />She shall be better woman, wife and mother, <br />Than man hath known before.<br /><br />Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/reassurance-7/
