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A Son Speaks

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Mother, sit down, for I have much to say

Anent this widespread ever-growing theme

Of woman and her virtues and her rights.

I left you for the large, loud world of men,

When I had lived one little score of years.

I judged all women by you, and my heart

Was filled with high esteem and reverence

For your angelic sex; and for the wives,

The sisters, daughters, mothers of my friends

I held but holy thoughts. To fallen stars

(Of whom you told me in our last sweet talk,

Warning me of the dangers in my path)

I gave wide pity as you bade me to,

Saying their sins harked back to my base sex.

Now listen, mother mine: Ten years have passed

Since that clean-minded and pure-bodied youth,

Thinking to write his name upon the stars,

Went from your presence. He returns to you

Fallen from his altitude of thought,

Hiding deep scars of sins upon his soul,

His fair illusions shattered and destroyed.

And would you know the story of his fall?

He sat beside a good man's honoured wife

At her own table. She was beautiful

As woods in early autumn. Full of soft

And subtle witcheries of voice and look -

His senior, both in knowledge and in years.

The boyish admiration of his glance

Was white as April sunlight when it falls

Upon a blooming tree, until she leaned

So close her rounded body sent quick thrills

Along his nerves. He thought it accident,

And moved a little; soon she leaned again.

The half-hid beauties of her heaving breast

Rising and falling under scented lace,

The teasing tendrils of her fragrant hair,

With intermittent touches on his cheek,

Changed the boy's interest to a man's desire.

She saw that first young madness in his eyes

And smiled and fanned the flame. That was his fall;

And as some mangled fly may crawl away

And leave his wings behind him in the web,

So were his wings of faith in womanhood

Left in the meshes of her sensuous net.

The youth, forced into sudden manhood, went

Seeking the lost ideal of his dreams.

He met, in churches and in drawing-rooms,

Women who wore the mask of innocence

And basked in public favour, yet who seemed

To find their pleasure playing with men's hearts,

As children play with loaded guns. He heard

(Until the tale fell dull upon his ears)

The unsolicited complaints of wives

And mothers all unsatisfied with life,

While crowned with every blessing earth can give

Longing for God knows what to bring content,

And openly or with appealing look

Asking for sympathy. (The first blind step

That leads from wifely honour down to shame,

Is ofttimes hid with flowers of sympathy.)

He saw proud women who would flush and pale

With sense of outraged modesty if one

Spoke of the ancient sin before them, bare

To all men's sight, or flimsily conceal

By veils that bid adventurous eyes proceed,

Charms meant alone for lover and for child.

He saw chaste virgins tempt and tantalise,

Lure and deny, invite -and then refuse,

And drive men forth half crazed to wantons' arms.

Mother, you taught me there were but two kinds

Of women in the world -the good and bad.

But you have been too sheltered in the safe,

Old-fashioned sweetness of your quiet life,

To know how women of these modern days

Make licence of their new-found liberty.

Why, I have been more tempted and more shocked

By belles and beauties in the social whirl,

By trusted wives and mothers in their homes,

Than by the women of the underworld

Who sell their favours. Do you think me mad?

No, mother; I am sane, but very sad.

I miss my boyhood's faith in woman's worth -

Torn from my heart, by 'good folks' of the earth.