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A Love Poem
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Many a husband will take their wife for granted. In this love poem, Lena Lathrap responds to a man's question regarding a wife, and in turn asks the question that many women want answered - will you truly give me your heart, will you remain with me even as I grow old, and will your love remain true to me?
A Woman's Question
by Mary T. (Lena) Lathrap
Do you know you have asked for the costliest thing
Ever made by the hand above?
A woman's heart, and a woman's life--
And a woman's wonderful love.
Do you know you have asked for this priceless thing
As a child might ask for a toy?
Demanding what others have died to win
With the reckless dash of a boy.
You have written my lesson of duty out,
Manlike, you have questioned me.
Now stand at the bars of my woman's soul
Until I shall question thee.
You require your mutton shall always be hot,
Your socks and your shirt be whole;
I require your heart be as true as God's stars
And as pure as His heaven your soul.
You require a cook for your mutton and beef,
I require a far greater thing;
A seamstress you're wanting for socks and shirts---
I look for a man and a king.
A king for the beautiful realm called Home,
And a man that his Maker, God,
Shall look upon as he did on the first
And say: "It is very good."
I am fair and young, but the rose may fade
From this soft young cheeck one day;
Will you love me then, 'mid the falling leaves
As you did 'mong the blossoms of May?
Is your heart an ocean so strong and true,
I may launch my all on its tide?
A loving woman finds heaven or hell
On the day she is made a bride.
I require all things that are grand and true,
All things that a man should be;
If you give this all, I would stake my life
To be all you demand of me.
If you cannot be this, a laundress and cook
You can hire and little to pay;
But a woman's heart and a woman's life
Are not to be won that way.
~Mary T. (Lena) Lathrap (1838-1895)
Mary Torrans Lathrap (known by the pen name 'Lena Lathrop' which is the pseudonym she used in her youth when writing for the county paper), is the author of this poem, although it has mistakenly been attributed to Elizabeth Barret Browning. Interestingly, this error dates back to at least 1890.
This poem, along with several others, can be found in Lathrap's book - The Poems and Written Addresses of Mary T. Lathrap. Julia R. Parish ed. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Michigan, 1895.
Lathrap helped found the Michigan Woman's Suffrage Association in 1870 and was at one time, a teacher and a licensed preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church. She became a prominent influence in the woman's crusade in Jackson County in the 1870's.
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