by Charlotte Perkins Gilman<\/p>\n
Are you content, you pretty three-years\u2019 wife?
\nAre you content and satisfied to live
\nOn what your loving husband loves to give,
\nAnd give to him your life?<\/p>\n
Are you content with work, \u2014 to toil alone,
\nTo clean things dirty and to soil things clean;
\nTo be a kitchen-maid, be called a queen, \u2014
\nQueen of a cook-stove throne?<\/p>\n
Are you content to reign in that small space —
\nA wooden palace and a yard-fenced land —
\nWith other queens abundant on each hand,
\nEach fastened in her place?<\/p>\n
Are you content to rear your children so?
\nUntaught yourself, untrained, perplexed, distressed,
\nAre you so sure your way is always best?
\nThat you can always know?<\/p>\n
Have you forgotten how you used to long
\nIn days of ardent girlhood, to be great,
\nTo help the groaning world, to serve the state,
\nTo be so wise \u2014 so strong?<\/p>\n
And are you quite convinced this is the way,
\nThe only way a woman\u2019s duty lies —
\nKnowing all women so have shut their eyes?
\nSeeing the world to-day?<\/p>\n
Having no dream of life in fuller store?
\nOf growing to be more than that you are?
\nDoing the things you know do better far,
\nYet doing others – more?<\/p>\n
Losing no love, but finding as you grew
\nThat as you entered upon nobler life
\nYou so became a richer, sweeter wife,
\nA wiser mother too?<\/p>\n
What holds you? Ah, my dear, it is your throne,
\nYour paltry queenship in that narrow place,
\nYour antique labours, your restricted space,
\nYour working all alone!<\/p>\n
Be not deceived! \u2018Tis not your wifely bond
\nThat holds you, nor the mother\u2019s royal power,
\nBut selfish, slavish service hour by hour —
\nA life with no beyond!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Public Domain\r\n\r\nSource: \"To the Young Wife,\" Poetry Foundation<\/a><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To The Young Wife by Charlotte Perkins Gilman Are you content, you pretty three-years\u2019 wife? Are you content and satisfied to live On what your loving husband loves to give, And give to him your life?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[12,32,31,58,30,10],"class_list":["post-483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-charlotte-perkins-gilman","tag-feminism","tag-poem","tag-poetry","tag-social-commentary","tag-womens-lives","tag-womens-rights"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}