Woman free

by Ellis Ethelmer

X.

Æons of wrong ere history was born,

With added ages passed in slight and scorn,

Maintained the chains of primal womanhood,

And clogged in turn man’s power of greater good;

Egypt or Greece in vain sought heavenly light

While woman’s soul was held from equal flight,—

Her path confined by man to sordid end,

As subjugated wife, or hireling transient friend.