VI.

The inklings gleaned of prehistoric hour

Speak woman thrall to man’s unbridled power;

Than brute more gifted, he, with heinous skill,

Subdued her being to his sensual will;

Binding her fast with ties of cunning weight,

By mother’s burden forced to slavish fate;

Thus woman was, and such her man-made doom,

Ere yet the dawn of love illumed the soulless gloom.