Suffrage Songs and Verses

By Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Mint Editions

Suffrage Songs and Verses (1911) is a collection of political poems by American author and feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Inspired by her work as a social reformer and advocate for women’s suffrage, Gilman turned to poetry as a means of supporting the cause of suffragists everywhere. Although she is widely recognized for her novels, short stories, and nonfiction, Gilman’s poetry showcases her command of language and fiery passion for the political and social advancement of women.

“She Walketh Veiled and Sleeping” opens the collection with an image of latent power, a woman “[s]low advancing, halting, creeping…to the hour” of her liberation. In “Locked Inside,” Gilman echoes the trope of poetry as a voice imprisoned—explored by such poets as Ovid, Coleridge, and Dickinson—to envision a woman who “beats upon her bolted door, / With faint weak hands,” barred from the life of the world she not only desires, but desperately needs. In “Boys Will Be Boys”—a poem with a message for our contemporary awakening to the violence perpetrated by men against women—Gilman argues that women must turn to “love and truth” rather than “warfare” in order to have their way. Other poems in Suffrage Songs and Verses explore the nature of motherhood, the institution of marriage, and the need to elevate individual identity beyond the confines of gender. Gilman’s work as a poet proves a substantial contribution to both the suffragist cause and the vibrant tradition of political poetry in twentieth century literature.

This edition of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Suffrage Songs and Verses is a classic of American literature and poetry reimagined for modern readers.

Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.

With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mint Editions
• Release date: Jan 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9781513274850

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was an American sociologist, writer, lecturer, and social reformist. As a child, Gilman was often in the presence of her father’s relatives, notably Isabella Beecher Hooker, a well-known suffragist, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, an abolitionist and author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Many of Gilman’s own works reflect similarly feminist and social reformist perspectives, and in 1909 she established The Forerunner, a magazine that acted as a forum for discussion of these issues. Gilman’s most famous work is “The Yellow Wallpaper,” a semi-autobiographical short story written in response to being put on “rest cure” by a doctor to cure her depression. Gilman’s works also include the poetry collection In This Our World, and the feminist texts Women and Economics and The Home: Its Work and Influence. She died in 1935.

Book preview

SHE WALKETH VEILED AND SLEEPING

She walketh veiled and sleeping,

For she knoweth not her power;

She obeyeth but the pleading

Of her heart, and the high leading

Of her soul, unto this hour.

Slow advancing, halting, creeping,

Comes the Woman to the hour!—

She walketh veiled and sleeping,

For she knoweth not her power.

COMING

Because the time is ripe, the age is ready,

Because the world her woman’s help demands,

Out of the long subjection and seclusion

Come to our field of warfare and confusion

The mother’s heart and hands.

Long has she stood aside, endured and waited,

While man swung forward, toiling on alone;

Now, for the weary man, so long ill-mated,

Now, for the world for which she was created,

Comes woman to her own.

Not for herself! though sweet the air of freedom;

Not for herself, though dear the new-born power;

But for the child, who needs a nobler mother,

For the whole people, needing one another,

Comes woman to her hour.

LOCKED INSIDE

She beats upon her bolted door,

With faint weak hands;

Drearily walks the narrow floor;

Sullenly sits, blank walls before;

Despairing stands.

Life calls her, Duty, Pleasure, Gain—

Her dreams respond;

But the blank daylights wax and wane,

Dull peace, sharp agony, slow pain—

No hope beyond.

Till she comes a thought! She lifts her head,

The world grows wide!

A voice—as if clear words were said—

"Your door, O long imprisonéd,

Is locked inside!"

NOW

With God Above—Beneath—Beside—

Without—Within—and Everywhere;

Rising with the resistless tide

Of life, and Sure of Getting There.

Patient with Nature’s long delay,

Proud of our conscious upward swing;

Not sorry for a single day,