Poem for the Day
And continuing my theme of recent years which has been, wars more generally, and this is one of the longer ones -
- which really perhaps I should have noted last year, since there was, at least in my country, a significant battle finally won 100 years previous, except that it was also the bicentenary of Peterloo -
- I was wondering about March of the Women, but while a stirring song set to Ethel Smythe's music, I am not sure the words (by Cicely Hamilton) hold up entirely on their own -
- I give you instead the following, by my gay male suffragist and sex reformer boyfriend, Laurence Housman, Woman This and Woman That.
We observe that it riffs off Kipling's Tommy, which, if not precisely an anti-war poem, is vigorous about the way people turn away from their 'heroes' once the crisis is over... and yes, I was trying to think of poems about the War on Disease, and not coming up with much. Since for reasons I was lately looking up JBS Haldane I was reminded that he wrote a jaunty if somewhat creepy little piece of doggerel, Cancer's A Funny Thing. Maybe the War on Disease is more the province of prose fiction.
We went up to Saint Stephen's with petitions year by year;
'Get out!' the politicians cried, 'We want no women here!'
M.P.s behind the railings stood and laughed to see the fun,
And bold policemen knocked us down, because we would not run.
For it's 'woman this', and 'woman that', and 'Woman, go away!'
But it's 'Share and share alike, ma'am!' when the taxes are to pay;
When the taxes are to pay, my friends, the taxes are to pay,
O it's 'Please to pay up promptly!' when the taxes are to pay.
We went before a magistrate, who would not hear us speak,
To a drunken brute who beat his wife he only gave a week,
But we were sent to Holloway a calendar month or more
Because we dared, against his will, to knock at Asquith's door.
For it's 'woman this', and 'woman that', and 'Woman, wait outside!'
But it's 'Listen to the ladies!' when it suits your party's side;
When it suits your party's side, my friends, with M.P.s on the stump
And shaking in their shoes at how the cat is going to jump!
When women go to work for them the government engage
To give them lots of contract jobs at a low starvation wage,
But when it's men that they employ they always add a note -
'Fair wages must be paid' -- because the men have got the vote.
For it's 'woman this', and 'woman that', and 'Woman, learn your place!'
But it's 'Help us, of your charity!' when trouble looms apace;
When trouble comes apace, my friends, when trouble comes apace,
Then it's 'O, for woman's charity!' to help and save the race!
You dress yourselves in uniforms to guard your native shores,
But those who make the uniforms do work as good as yours;
For the soldier bears the rifle, but the woman bears the race -
And that you' d find no trifle if you had to take her place!
O it's 'woman this', and 'woman that', and 'Woman cannot fight!'
But it's' Ministering Angel!' when the wounded come in sight;
When the wounded come in sight, my friends, the wounded come in sight,
It's a 'ministering angel' then who nurses day and night!
We are only human beings who have wants much like your own,
And if sometimes our conduct isn't all your fancy paints
It wasn't man's example could have turned us into saints!
For it's 'woman here', and 'woman there', and 'Woman on the streets!'
And it's how they look at women with most men that one meets,
With most men that one meets, my friends, with most men that one meets -
It's the way they look at women that keeps women on the streets!
You talk of sanitation, and temperance, and schools,
And you send your male inspectors to impose your man-made rules;
'The woman's sphere's the home,' you say, then prove it to our face:
'Give us the vote that we may make the home a happier place!'
For it's 'woman this', and 'woman that', and Woman, say your say!'
But it's 'What's the woman up to?' when she tries to show the way;
When she tries to show the way, my friends, when she tries to show the way -
And the woman means to show it -- that is why she's out today!
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