Which Has More Patience -- Man or Woman?

Which Has More Patience -- Man or Woman?

Original Text
The Poetry of Lucy Maud Montgomery, ed. John Ferns and Kevin McCabe (Markham: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1987): 120-21. PS 8525 O68A6 Robarts Library.
1As my letter must be brief,
2I'll at once state my belief,
3And this it is -- that, since the world began,
4And Adam first did say,
5"'Twas Eve led me astray,"
6A woman hath more patience than a man.
7If a man's obliged to wait
8For some one who's rather late,
9No mortal ever got in such a stew,
10And if something can't be found
11That he's sure should be around,
12The listening air sometimes grows fairly blue.
13Just watch a man who tries
14To soothe a baby's cries;
15Or put a stove pipe up in weather cold,
16Into what a state he'll get;
17How he'll fuss and fume and fret
18And stamp and bluster round and storm and scold!
19Some point to Job with pride,
20As an argument for their side!
21Why, it was so rare a patient man to see,
22That when one was really found,
23His discoverers were bound
24To preserve for him a place in history!
25And while I admit it's true
26That man has some patience too,
27And that woman isn't always sweetly calm,
28Still I think all must agree
29On this central fact -- that she
30For central all-round patience bears the palm.
Publication Start Year
1896
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1998.
Rhyme