Verses Written by a Young Lady, on Women Born to Be Controll'd!

How wretched is a woman’s fate,

No happy change her fortune knows;

Subject to man in every state,

How can she then be free from woes?

In youth, a father’s stern command

And jealous eyes control her will;

A lordly brother watchful stands

To keep her closer captive still.

The tyrant husband next appears,

With awful and contracted brow;

No more a lover’s form he wears:

Her slaves become her sovereign now.

If from this fatal bondage free,

And not by marriage-chains confined,

But, blessed with single life, can see

A parent fond, a brother kind;

Yet love usurps her tender breast,

And paints a phoenix to her eyes:

Some darling youth disturbs her rest,

And painful sighs in secret rise.

Oh cruel powers, since you’ve designed

That man, vain man, should bear the sway,

To a slave’s fetters add a slavish mind,

That I may cheerfully your will obey.