55 Sears the young heart to images of woe, And blasts the buds of Virtue as they blow.0 bloom
Lo! where reclin'd, pale Beauty courts the breeze, Diffus'd on sofas of voluptuous ease; With anxious awe, her menial train around,
60 Catch her faint whispers of half-utter'd sound; See her, in monstrous fellowship, unite At once the Scythian, and the Sybarite;2 Blending repugnant vices, misallied, Which frugal nature purpos'd to divide;
65 See her, with indolence to fierceness join'd, Of body delicate, infirm of mind, With languid tones imperious mandates urge; With arm recumbent wield the household scourge;
2. I.e., the contraries of pastoral wildness and effeminate voluptuousness.
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34 / ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD
And with unruffled mien, and placid sounds, 70 Contriving torture, and inflicting wounds.
Nor, in their palmy walks and spicy groves, The form benign of rural Pleasure roves; No milk-maid's song, or hum of village talk, Sooths the lone Poet in his evening walk:
75 No willing arm the flail unwearied plies,
- Where the mix'd sounds of cheerful labour rise; No blooming maids and frolic swains are seen To pay gay homage to their harvest queen: No heart-expanding scenes their eyes must prove so Of thriving industry, and faithful love: But shrieks and yells disturb the balmy air, Dumb sullen looks of woe announce despair, And angry eyes through dusky features glare. Far from the sounding lash the Muses fly,
85 And sensual riot drowns each finer joy.
Nor less from the gay East, on essenc'd wings, Breathing unnam'd perfumes, Contagion springs; The soft luxurious plague alike pervades The marble palaces, and rural shades;
90 Hence, throng'd Augusta0 builds her rosy bowers, London And decks in summer wreaths her smoky towers; And hence, in summer bow'rs, Art's costly hand Pours courtly splendours o'er the dazzled land: The manners melt?One undistinguish'd blaze
95 O'erwhelms the sober pomp of elder days; Corruption follows with gigantic stride, And scarce vouchsafes his shameless front to hide: The spreading leprosy taints ev'ry part, Infects each limb, and sickens at the heart.
ioo Simplicity! most dear of rural maids, Weeping resigns her violated shades: Stern Independance from his glebe0 retires, cidtivated land And anxious Freedom eyes her drooping fires; By foreign wealth are British morals chang'd,
105 And Afric's sons, and India's, smile aveng'd.
For you, whose temper'd ardour long has borne Untir'd the labour, and unmov'd the scorn; In Virtue's fasti0 be inscrib'd your fame, records And utter'd yours with Howard's honour'd name,3
no Friends of the friendless?Hail, ye generous band! Whose efforts yet arrest Heav'n's lifted hand, Around whose steady brows, in union bright, The civic wreath, and Christian's palm unite: Your merit stands, no greater and no less,
us Without, or with the varnish of success; But seek no more to break a Nation's fall, For ye have sav'd yourselves?and that is all. Succeeding times your struggles, and their fate, With mingled shame and triumph shall relate,
3. John Howard (1726-1790), philanthropist and prison and public health reformer.
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T HE R IGHTS OF W OMAN / 3 5 120 While faithful History, in her various page, Marking the features of this motley age, To shed a glory, and to fix a stain, Tells how you strove, and that you strove in vain. 1791 1791
The Rights of Woman1
Yes, injured Woman! rise, assert thy right! Woman! too long degraded, scorned, opprest; O born to rule in partial' Law's despite, biased Resume thy native empire o'er the breast!
5 Go forth arrayed in panoply' divine; suit of armor That angel pureness which admits no stain; Go, bid proud Man his boasted rule resign, And kiss the golden sceptre of thy reign.
Go, gird thyself with grace; collect thy store
10 Of bright artillery glancing from afar; Soft melting tones thy thundering cannon's roar, Rlushes and fears thy magazine0 of war. storehouse of arms
Thy rights are empire: urge no meaner claim,? Felt, not defined, and if debated, lost; 15 Like sacred mysteries, which withheld from fame, Shunning discussion, are revered the most.
Try all that wit and art suggest to bend Of thy imperial foe the stubborn knee; Make treacherous Man thy subject, not thy friend;
20 Thou mayst command, but never canst be free.
Awe the licentious, and restrain the rude; Soften the sullen, clear the cloudy brow: Be, more than princes' gifts, thy favours sued;? She hazards all, who will the least allow.
25 But hope not, courted idol of mankind, On this proud eminence secure to stay; Subduing and subdued, thou soon shalt find Thy coldness soften, and thy pride give way.
Then, then, abandon each ambitious thought, 30 Conquest or rule thy heart shall feebly move,
1. A response?seemingly favorable until the last ers' as evidence that even women of sense were two stanzas?to Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindica-capable of adopting the masculine-centered gention of the Rights of Woman (1792). In chapter 4 der code that identified the feminine with the ornaof Vindication, Wollstonecraft had
