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?"