The woman's cause is man's. They rise or sink
Together, dwart'd or godlike, bond or free.
For she that out of Lethe scales with man
The shining steps of Nature, shares with man
His nights, his days, moves with him to one goal,
Stays all the fair young planet in her hands-
If she be small, slight-natur'd, miserable,
How shall men grow? But work no more alone!
Our place is much. As far as in us lies
We two will serve them both in aiding her-
Will clear away the parasitic forms
That seem to keep her up but drag her down-
Will leave her space to burgeon out of all
Within her let her make herself her own
To give or keep, to live and learn and be
All that not harms distinctive womanhood.
For woman is not undevelop'd man,
But diverse. Could we make her as the man,
Sweet Love were slain. His dearest bond is this,
Not like to like, but like in difference.
Yet in the long years liker must they grow;
The man be more of woman, she of man;
He gain in sweetness and in moral height,
Nor lose the wrestling thews that throw the world:
She mental breadth, nor fail in childward care,
Nor lose the childlike in the larger mind;
Till at the last she set herself to man,
Like perfect music unto noble words.
And so these twain, upon the skirts of Time,
Sit side by side, full-summ'd in all their powers,
Dispensing harvest, sowing the To-be,
Self-reverent each and reverencing each,
Distinct in individualities,
But like each other ev'n as those who love.
Then comes the statelier Eden back to men ;
Then reign the world's great bridals, chaste and calm;
Then springs the crowning race of humankind.
Sighing she spoke. 'I fear
'Dear, but let us type them now
In our own lives, and this proud watchword rest
Of equal; seeing either sex alone
Is half itself, and in true marriage lies
Nor equal, nor unequal. Each fulfils
Defect in each, and always thought in thought,
Purpose in purpose, will in will, they grow,
The single pure and perfect animal,
The two-cell'd heart beating, with one full stroke,
Life.'
And again sighing she spoke. 'A dream
That once was mine! What woman taught you this?'
'Alone,' I said, 'from earlier than I know,
Immers'd in rich foreshadowings of the world,
I lov'd the woman. He, that doth not, lives
A drowning life, besotted in sweet self,
Or pines in sad experience worse than death,
Or keeps his wing'd affections clipp'd with crime.
Yet was there one thro' whom I lov'd her, one
Not learned, save in gracious household ways,
Not perfect, nay, but full of tender wants,
No angel, but a dearer being, all dipp'd
In angel instincts, breathing Paradise,
Interpreter between the Gods and men,
Who look'd all native to her place, and yet
On tiptoe seem'd to touch upon a sphere
Too gross to tread, and all male minds perforce
Sway'd to her from their orbits as they moved,
And girdled her with music. Happy he
With such a mother! Faith in womankind
Beats with his blood, and trust in all things high
Comes easy to him, and tho' he trip and fall
He shall not blind his soul with clay.'
Said Ida, tremulously, so all unlike—
It seems you love to cheat yourself with words:
This mother is your model. I have heard
Of your strange doubts. They well might be: I seem
A mockery to my own self. Never, Prince;
Ere seen I lov'd, and lov'd thee seen, and saw
Thee woman thro' the crust of iron moods
That mask'd thee from men's reverence up, and forc'd
Sweet love on pranks of saucy boyhood.
Giv'n back to life, to life indeed, thro' thee,
Indeed I love. The new day comes, the light
Dearer for night, as dearer thou for faults
Liv'd over.
Lift thine eyes: my doubts are dead,
My haunting sense of hollow shows; the change,
This truthful change in thee has kill'd it.
Look up, and let thy nature strike on mine,
Like yonder morning on the blind half-world.
Approach and fear not; breathe upon my brows.
In that fine air I tremble, all the past
Melts mist-like into this bright hour, and this
Is morn to more, and all the rich to-come
Reels, as the golden autumn woodland reels
Athwart the smoke of burning weeds. Forgive me,
I waste my heart in signs: let be. My bride,
My wife, my life! O we will walk this world,
Yoked in all exercise of noble end,
And so thro' those dark gates across the wild
That no man knows. Indeed I love thee: come,
Yield thyself up. My hopes and thine are one.
Accomplish thou my manhood and thyself;
Lay thy sweet hands in mine and trust to me.'
So closed our tale, of which I give you all
The random scheme as wildly as it rose.
The words are mostly mine; for when we ceas'd
There came a minute's pause, and Walter said,
'I wish she had not yielded!' Then to me,
What if you dress'd it up poetically!'
So pray'd the men, the women. I gave assent:
Yet how to bind the scatter'd scheme of seven
Together in one sheaf? What style could suit ?
The men required that I should give throughout
The sort of mock-heroic gigantesque,
With which we banter'd little Lilia first.
The women and perhaps they felt their power,
For something in the ballads which they sang,
Or in their silent influence as they sat,
Had ever seem'd to wrestle with burlesque,
And drove us, last, to quite a solemn close-
They hated banter, wish'd for something real,
A gallant fight, a noble princess-why
Not make her true-heroic-true-sublime?
Or all, they said, as earnest as the close?
Which yet with such a framework scarce could be.
Then rose a little feud betwixt the two,
Betwixt the mockers and the realists;
And I, betwixt them both, to please them both,
And yet to give the story as it rose,
I moved as in a strange diagonal,
And maybe neither pleas'd myself nor them.
But Lilia pleas'd me, for she took no part
In our dispute. The sequel of the tale
Had touch'd her; and she sat, she pluck'd the grass,
She flung it from her, thinking. Last, she fix'd
A showery glance upon her aunt, and said,
'You tell us what we are '-who might have told,
For she was cramm'd with theories out of books,
But that there rose a shout. The gates were closed
At sunset, and the crowd were swarming now,
To take their leave, about the garden rails.
So I and some went out to these. We climb'd
The slope to Vivian-place, and turning saw
The happy valleys, half in light, and half
Far-shadowing from the west, a land of peace;
Gray halls alone among their massive groves;
Trim hamlets; here and there a rustic tower
Half-lost in belts of hop and breadths of wheat;
The shimmering glimpses of a stream; the seas;
A red sail, or a white; and far beyond,
Imagin'd more than seen, the skirts of France.
'Look there, a garden!' said my college friend,
The Tory member's elder son, and there!
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