Do you come to me to bend me to your will
as conqueror to the vanquished
to make of me a bondslave
to bear you children, wearing out my life
in drudgery and silence
no servant will i be
if that be what you ask. O lover i refuse you!
Or if you think to wed with one from heaven sent
whose every deed and word and wish is golden
a wingless angel who can do no wrong
go! - i am no doll to dress and sit for feeble worship
if that be what you ask, fool, i refuse you!
Or if you think in me to find
a creature who will have no greater joy
than gratify your clamorous desire,
my skin soft only for your fond caresses
my body supple only for your sense delight.
Oh shame, and pity and abasement.
Not for you the hand of any wakened woman of our time.
But lover, if you ask of me
that i shall be your comrade, friend, and mate,
to live and work, to love and die with you,
that so together we may know the purity and height
of passion, and of joy and sorrow,
then o husband, i am yours forever
and our co-equal love will make the stars to laugh with joy
and to its circling fugue pass, hand holding hand
until we reach the very heart of god.
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Comments
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GCSE
From guest Honey (contact)
Does anyone know how i can compare the poem 'A Woman to Her Lover' by Christina Walsh to Robert Browning's 'My Last Duchess'?? -
From guest nicole wright (contact)
would any one be able to tell me what year this poem was written in please as i am doing a GCSE coursework bases around this poem -
From guest rhondasail (contact)
A perfect poem of the companionship of love, showing that it is a partnership not a dictatorship...Beautifully written. -
From guest NeedsHelp (contact)
Does any body know anythink about this poet because for the life of me i cannot find any Information reguarding her life. Any help welcome..Thankz..xx -
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To user NeedsHelp -- As it says on her author page at Oldpoetry very little is known about this lady. If you have any contributions WE would appreciate them for use here. Credit will be given.
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From guest ella (contact)
This poem is brilliant, tho does anyone know what other peoms she wrote? Thanx -
i love this poem it expresses in a beautiful manner how women should be treated equally to men rather than the man having all power, this completely contradicts 'porphyria's lover' and 'my last duchess'
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date?
From guest A Guest (contact)
im studying this poem now for English. does anyone know when it was written? -
I LOVE ENGLISH!!
From guest Chloe (contact)
my name is Chloe Pugh. and i am currently studying this poem in English and i have never been happier!! it is great and i could not ask for a better thing to do than to read poems ... and annotate them =] -
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From guest Dark Princess (contact)
i stuyed this in yr 10 as part of my courswork and i think this is very good as it gets her point across and i agree with hersome women are still treated like slaves. and it has to stop -
From guest A guest (contact)
I quite liked this poem, especially the fact that it was probably quite unique for its era. However, I'm not too sure what kind of category it falls under, a dramatic monologue? And ideas? -
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This poem is kool- with a k!
From guest SexyManBeast (contact)
I was pretty impressed by this poem and thoroughly enjoyed reading it; didn't have so much fun analysing it in an 8 page GCSE essay though...grrr. Walsh has done a decent job in this poem-type thing and I reckon there's a fair amount of material for you to use if you were to analyse it. Shame there isn't much material on the gal who wrote this poem. I'm going to have a cup of tea now (and perhaps a couple of biscuits; I'm feeling adventurous today!)Goodbye poetry-type-reader people persons! -
ze poem
From guest Toddy (contact)
this poem is rather alrighty, i'll give it that. However when trying to find anything AT ALL about this woman, its like running towards the end of a rainbow, getting ever so close, tripping on a root and landing falt on my face...well something along those lines, (i'm sure there was some cow "cough-cough" patt involved somewhere along the way). I have to do this poem analysis for...Tuesday! and it's already Wednesday, what am i to do?! Well its good to see that others are in the same leeking, rocking, totally-unstable boat as me, but that still doesn't make that boat of ours sprout any sails so i shall journey on and see what happens! lovelove xx PS - my poetry is faaaaar better than this, give me a shout and i'll show u ;) -
ze poem
From guest Toddy (contact)
i'm using this poem for a GCSE english poem analysis and it aint all that bad to be honest. Does anyone have any back ground knowledge on who this woman is? -
Omg
From guest Sxcbeau (contact)
this poem is so hard to annitate, ive had to write about it for GCSE english, and have never come across a poem like this, i personally think its very towards woman rights. and i dont like it at all. it hasnt shown me anything and prefer her other poems. -
A woman so radical that there is no record of her? I say that the men were furious with her liberating methods, got together and burned her work! Or, perhaps she never existed--like, perhaps, in the way of the controversy with our famed bard, William Shakespeare, perhaps there is another "name" for this poet. Fun is in the speculating...lol.
I find the term "comrade" an interesting one, as it does not connote a pure sense of "romantic" partner, but one of companion; someone to shoulder with, to perform tasks and duties with. In reading the posted comments, I find it a wonderful thought that so many had it for their GCSE. I'm sure Mary Wollstonecraft is clapping and shouting in glee!
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genius
With one poem she was able to show her brilliance and amazing, especially for her time, devotion to both man and woman. -
this is a good poem
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i Agree the dehumanizing nature of the poem makes my teeth chatter and eyes constrict in their own boundries.
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This is such a good poem and i really like it beacuase it has a range of vocab and it portrays how much the women loves the man and uplifts someones spirit
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Christina Walsh is taking control here and is saying what is expected of him in the relationship, and what she wants from him. She is saying that it is wrong to have women treated like a sexual object, to bring up children and be treated like a servant. The poem isn’t directed just at her lover, it is directed at all men. What she wants is to be treated fairly, like a person. In this poem, it appears that the love talked about here is purely sexual. She doesn’t really say anything about how she feels for him, she just talks about how women of the time are treated and how she wants to be treated.
She refers to herself as a ‘creature’, dehumanising herself.
There is a religious theme throughout the poem as she refers to herself as an ‘angel’ who was sent from heaven to do as he pleases. In stanza one, Christina rewrites the wedding vows to ‘in drudgery and silence’. This may mean that she thinks the wedding vows are outdated and have underlying agendas, wanting the women to stay in the home, bring up the children, and do what the husband wants, and care for him.
thanks guys! -
i think this ia a fantastic poem. i am a GCSE student and am glad that my teacher chose this poem for us as it helped show myself and my friends that poems do have meaning and that they are not useless as we thought before. so thankyou old poetry
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I think that this poem is awesome, and it is an amazing poem to read for GCSE.
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i saw the date of some of these comments..and thy were from lke a year or two ago...but id like to say thanks to all the comments...its taken me 2 months to even look and understand my coursework title, now its become so much clearer thanks to the notes posted on this page!
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Are you sure it was written in the victorian era? i'm sure that the victorian era was after 1800 somewhere around 1850... i think. but i do agree that it does seem very modern for the time that she wrote it in and even before the womens revolution in 1960. Ahh... what an age we live in. Speaking of Victorian times, can i just state that women couldn't show their ankles and had to call their legs limbs, but they had no trouble wearing a dress with that disblayed half of their breast! funny no? i think so
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actually no, this poem was writen in the romantic period. yes it does seem much more modern than it seems
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This is astounding! However its such an oddity, Christina Walsh is soley known for this poem and no other, the only thing i can dig about her is that she lived from 1750-1800. What baffled me more was that this poem was written in the Victorian era, where woman were forced to call their legs as limbs since it might have too "erotic". Yet this poem has modern techniques are ones of a modern poet, where she follows no tradtional poetic form and the content is more important. "co-equal" (men and woman equal in the 18th century??) its just so out of place! if someone has any background on her please share it!
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im studying this poem for my gcse's and at first i found it confusing until i realised what it meant so i thank evryone who gave me inspiration on this website
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not bad
it thinks it like this see: i am studying the poem for GCSE coursework and i would appreciate good comments! The poem shows the modern Vctorian womans desire for equality in one of the most precious areas, homelife. To be disrespected in the home as inferior must have been a huge problem to deal with for many women and it took women like Walsh to stand up to that.
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This poem is uplifting to say the least. It makes you want to repeat the whole women's movement of the 1960's again (anyone for bra burning). However the last stanza is quite disapointing as it seems that she is just another hopeless romantic. She talks about being 'co-equal' but in the line before she says 'i am yours forever' making it sem as if she is an object.
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it does seem to be the written reply to a proposal, with the shift from lover to husband in the last stanza.
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The poem is written in a freeverse.
In the first three stanzas, the poet declares what she will not enter a partnership as, and rebukes her lover even to the point of calling him a fool (line 12). In the final stanza, she sets her terms for the relationship, if it is to go any further. An interesting aspect to this is in the 25th line 'then o husband, i am yours forever'. Her she ceases to call him lover, but addresses him as husband.
With so little background information on both the author and the poem, it could be possible that this poem started as a written reply to a proposal.
Andrew -
When people accepted the norms of soceity it took writers and poets of courage and far sight to speak up against them. It is these kind of writings that must have helped to mould a new generation of women who were not satisfied just to be drudges, or angels set up on pedestals or even playthings for a mans physical satisfaction but she wanted much more she knew her own capabilities, was not satisfied to fit into the mould that men had made for her her thinking and intellect had made her outgrow that mould. but it was perfection an idealists view of a marriage that she was hoping for.
she was asking for companionship respect friendship to share equally in the joys and sorrow and for that she promised much in return she promised him the zenith of passion to and to work for him and to die for him.
One would think that here she was doing the three things that she refused to do the difference is that the man is not taking or demanding or forcing his will or his ideals on her but giving her the place she deserves, listening to her respecting her as a person and respecting her intellect. sharing with her his worries and his glad tidings.
No more is she willing to be the little lady in his life pampered and protected from bad news or worked to death without any gratitude coming her way or used to satisfy his desires without any recognition of her needs. -
EXCELLENT =)
im also a GCSE student and comparing various 19 and 20th century love poems..i really enjoy this one because in each of the stanzas Walsh gives an example of what she is really looking for in a man* -
It is amazing and exciting to me to see the rebelliousness in this piece. To have these words penned in 1900 really speaks to the mentality of the times. This piece is timeless, in my opinion. A definite anthem for good relationships.
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AWSOME!
I need to put this poem on my wall in my room, maybe rite above my bed... what a great poem... -
good
the peom is god...i like the way it is structured...i also like the use of imagery.. the poem is cleverly writted
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wonderful
"But lover, if you ask of me
that i shall be your comrade, friend, and mate,
to live and work, to love and die with you,
that so together we may know the purity and height
of passion, and of joy and sorrow,
then o husband, i am yours forever"
She has got a great intellect, very straight, very nice. plz add some more of her poems.
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very good shows a lot about womens thoughts in the Victorian age
i am studying the poem for GCSE coursework and i would appreciate good comments! The poem shows the modern Vctorian womans desire for equality in one of the most precious areas, homelife. To be disrespected in the home as inferior must have been a huge problem to deal with for many women and it took women like Walsh to stand up to that. -
exellent
i thinks this poem is quite a good poem
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