Poems (Clark)/Woman's Rights

by Annie Maria Lawrence Clark

WOMAN'S RIGHTS

Her "rights" are heaven-appointed, clothed with pa- tience,
 Linked to her mission by a golden chain,
Inlaid with diamond duties, through whose gleam- ing
 What else was dark lies purely fair and plain.

Her "right" it is, where mountain paths are steepest,
 Patient to walk beside her brother man;
To trace her name with his in deathless letters,—
 Share his best honors, aid his noblest plan.

These she may share, but, dearer still, she claimeth
 Exclusive "rights" that unto her belong,
Giving to life its crowning wave of beauty,
 Giving more sweetness to her sweetest song.

Hers to hold fondly on her loving bosom
 The little ones, whom Jesus said are blest;
To clasp fair folded hands, and guide the whispers
 Of children's prayers when twilight heralds rest.

Hers to smooth tangled ways by sweet foreknowledge,
 That cometh only from her wealth of love;
To guide the tempted into paths whose ending
 Opens the golden gates of peace above.

Hers to make home a shadowing forth of heaven;
 To sit, home's angel, in the hearth-flame's glow;
To make man better by her loving presence,
 And faith's calm beauties in her own life show.

In sun-bright paths, and in by-ways where shadows
 Drift into darkness, spectres of the air,
Are upturned eyes, to whom the light seems anguish,
 And groping hands outstretched for helping care.

And Woman's "right" it is to smile back comfort,
 In her soft grasp to hold those groping hands,
And where, to weary hearts, life seems a burden,
 Speak cheering words, like springs 'mid desert sands.

O sister woman! when our lives are rounded
 To truest beauty earth could ever claim,—
Each "right" made perfect through accepted duties,
 Whose full completion was our faithful aim;—

When these lie all in finished grace around us,
 And hands are idle, seeking work in vain,
Then, not till then, need we to claim new "missions,"
 "Rights" that would prove a burden, and no gain.