Women's Rights

Women's Rights

Original Text
[Annie L. Walker] Leaves from the Backwoods (Montreal: John Lovell, 1862), pp. 106-07. B-10 2803 Fisher Library.
1You cannot rob us of the rights we cherish,
2  Nor turn our thoughts away
3From the bright picture of a "Woman's Mission"
4  Our hearts portray.
5We claim to dwell, in quiet and seclusion,
6  Beneath the household roof,--
7From the great world's harsh strife, and jarring voices,
8  To stand aloof;--
9Not in a dreamy and inane abstraction
10  To sleep our life away,
11But, gathering up the brightness of home sunshine,
12  To deck our way.
13As humble plants by country hedgerows growing,
14  That treasure up the rain,
15And yield in odours, ere the day's declining,
16  The gift again;
17So let us, unobtrusive and unnoticed,
18  But happy none the less,
19Be privileged to fill the air around us
20  With happiness;
21To live, unknown beyond the cherished circle,
22  Which we can bless and aid;
23To die, and not a heart that does not love us
24  Know where we're laid.
Publication Start Year
1861
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1998.
Rhyme