I am not with you, sisters, in your talk; I sit not in your fancied judgment-seat: Not thus the sages in their council walk, Not in this wise the calm great spirits meet. My life has striven for broader scope than yours; The daring of its failure and its fact Have taught how deadly difficult it is To suit the high endeavor with the act. I do not reel my satire by the yard, To flout the fronts of honorable men; Nor, with poor cunning, underprize the heart Whose impulse is not open to my ken. Ah! sisters, but your forward speech comes well To help the woman's standard, new-unfurled: In carpet council ye may win the day; But keep your limits, -- do not rule the world. What strife should come, what discord rule the times, Could but your pettish will assert its way! No lengthened wars of reason, but a rage, Shown and repented twenty times a day. Ye're all my betters, -- one in beauty more, And one in sharpness of the wit and tongue, And one in trim, decorous piety, And one with arts and graces ever young. But well I thank my father's sober house Where shallow judgment had no leave to be, And hurrying years, that, stripping much beside, Turned as they fled, and left me charity. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE AFRICAN CHIEF by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT THE CULPRIT FAY by JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE PARTING by COVENTRY KERSEY DIGHTON PATMORE SONNET: 2 by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE BROTHERLY LOVE by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH VERSES DESIGNED TO BE SENT TO MR. ADAMS by ELIZABETH FRANCES AMHERST |