I WILL sing of the women who have borne rule, The severe, the swift, the beautiful; I will praise their loftiness of mind That made them too wise to be true or kind; I will sing of their calm injustice loved For the pride it fed and the power it proved. Once in Egypt a girl was queen; Ashamed that her womanhood should be seen, She wore a beard, she called herself king; She was uneasy with governing; She believed a king was greater than she, So she found a king and his mastery. In Smyrna sits a queen to-night Who does not shine by another's light; She has laid her husband on time's dust-heap But for that she holds not her title cheap; New radiance comes on woman by her, New force in woman is seen to stir. She has taken the land and the sea from men; She has shewn men the power of their source again. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE DECISION (APRIL 14, 1861) by EDGAR LEE MASTERS SONNET by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON THE CRYSTAL GAZER by SARA TEASDALE THE COCK AND THE BULL by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY ASTROPHEL AND STELLA: 32 by PHILIP SIDNEY |