Whatever Is

Whatever Is

Original Text
The Later Poetry of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, ed. Denise D. Knight (Delaware: University of Delaware Press, 1996): 131.
1Whatever is we only know
2As in our minds we find it so;
3    No staring fact is half so clear
4    As one dim, preconceived idea –-
5No matter how the fact may glow.
6Vainly may Truth her trumpet blow
7To stir our minds; like heavy dough
8    They stick to what they think -- won’t hear
9      Whatever is.
10Our ancient myths in solid row
11Stand up -- we simply have to go
12    And choke each fiction old and dear
13    Before the modest facts appear;
14Then we may grasp, reluctant, slow,
15      Whatever is.
Publication Notes
Cosmopolitan 37 (June 1904): 170.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2004
Form