[17] From advance sheets of "Poems of the New Time," by Miles
Menander Dawson, The Humboldt Library, Publishers: New York.
Cloth, 12mo, $1.00.
She stands beside her mate, companion-wise,
Erect, self-poised, with clear, straightforward eyes.
For what she knows he is she holds him dear,
And not for what she fancies him--with fear.
Brave spirit! Disillusionized, she lifts
What blinder women bear as heaven's ill gifts.
She asks but, ere she reproduce a man,
He truly be one, so a woman can.
She gives not for the asking, nor as one
Who does unpleasant things that must be done.
Nay, he who half-unwilling love receives
Knows not the full-orbed joy she freely gives.
Emancipated, on firm feet she stands,
And all that man exacts of her demands;
The new morality, the art of life,
And not obedience, holds her as wife.
Hail, the new woman! By her choices she
Determines wisely what mankind shall be.
She will not with eyes open be beguiled
To choose a tainted father for her child.