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?"
