A Father of Women, and Other Poems

Transcribed from the 1917 Burns & Oates Ltd edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
by Alice Meynell
BURNS & OATES Ltd 28 Orchard Street London W 1917
To V. L.
Ad Sororem E. B.
“ Thy father was transfused into thy blood .” Dryden : Ode to Mrs. Anne Killigrew .
Our father works in us, The daughters of his manhood. Not undone Is he, not wasted, though transmuted thus, And though he left no son.
Therefore on him I cry To arm me: “For my delicate mind a casque, A breastplate for my heart, courage to die, Of thee, captain, I ask.
“Nor strengthen only; press A finger on this violent blood and pale, Over this rash will let thy tenderness A while pause, and prevail.
“And shepherd-father, thou Whose staff folded my thoughts before my birth, Control them now I am of earth, and now Thou art no more of earth.
“O liberal, constant, dear! Crush in my nature the ungenerous art Of the inferior; set me high, and here, Here garner up thy heart.”
Like to him now are they, The million living fathers of the War— Mourning the crippled world, the bitter day— Whose striplings are no more.