Wednesday, August 28, 2013

August 29, 1863---“A Young Lady's Soliloquy”



AUGUST 29, 1863:  

            

A Young Lady's Soliloquy” appears in Harper's Weekly. This anonymous, unpolished little poem summarizes the changing view women had of themselves in the Civil War years: 


        Useless, aimlessly drifting through life,
        What was I born for? "For Somebody's wife,"
        I am told by my mother. Well, that being true,
        "Somebody" keeps himself strangely from view,
        And if naught but marriage will settle my fate,
        I believe I shall die in an unsettled state.
        For, though I'm not ugly, -- pray, what woman is? --
        You might easily find a more beautiful phiz;
        And then, as for temper and manners, 'tis plain
        He who seeks for perfection will seek here in vain.
        Nay, in spite of these drawbacks, my heart is perverse,
        And I should not feel grateful, "for better or worse,"
        To take the first Booby that graciously came
        And offered those treasures, his home and his name.
        But why should I think of such chances at all?
        My brothers are, all of them, younger than I,
        Yet they thrive in the world, and why not let me try?
        I know that in business I'm not an adept,
        Because from such matters most strictly I'm kept.
        But--this is the question that puzzles my mind--
        Why am I not trained up to work of some kind?
        Uselessly, aimlessly drifting through life,
        Why should I wait to be "Somebody's wife?"

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