More Females of the Species
More Females of the Species
(After Kipling)
Original Text
The Later Poetry of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, ed. Denise D. Knight (Delaware: University of Delaware Press, 1996): 59-60.
1When the traveller in the pasture meets the he-bull in his pride,
2He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside;
3But the milch cow, thus accosted, pins the traveller to the rail –-
4For the female of the species is deadlier than the male.
5When Nag, the raging stallion, meets a careless man on foot,
6He will sometimes not destroy him, even if the man don’t shoot;
7But the mare, if he should meet one, makes the bravest cowboy pale -–
8For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
9When our first colonial settlers met the Hurons and Choctaws,
10They were burned and scalped and slaughtered by the fury-breathing squaws;
11‘Twas the women, not the warriors, who in war-paint took the trail -–
12For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
13Man’s timid heart is bursting with the things he must not say
14As to women, lest in speaking he should give himself away;
15But when he meets a woman –- see him tremble and turn pale -–
16For the female of the species is more deadly than the male
17Lay your money on the hen-fight! On the dog-fight fought by shes!
18On the gory Ladies Prize-fight -– there are none so fierce as these!
19See small girls each other pounding, while their peaceful brothers wail -–
20For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
21So in history they tell us how all China shrieked and ran
22Before the wholesale slaughter dealt by Mrs. Genghis Khan.
23And Attila, the Scourge of God, who made all Europe quail,
24Was a female of the species and more deadly than the male.
25Red war with all its million dead is due to female rage,
26The names of women murderers monopolize the page,
27The pranks of a Napoleon are nothing to the tale
28Of destruction wrought by females, far more deadly than the male.
29In the baleful female infant this ferocity we spy,
30It glares in bloodshot fury from the maiden’s dewy eye,
31But the really deadly female, when you see her at her best,
32Has two babies at her petticoat and a suckling at her breast.
33Yet hold! there is Another! A monster even worse!
34The Terror of Humanity! Creation’s direst curse!
35Before whoim men in thousands must tremble, shrink and fail –-
36A sanguinary Grandma –- more deadly than the male!
Publication Notes
Forerunner 2 (December 1911): 318.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2004
Rhyme
Form