University of Virginia Library

From that day forth Eve eyed with tenderness
The Serpent, to whose craft she owed her dress.
But “More,” he whisper'd in her ear one day,
“Thou still mayst owe me, if it please thee. Say,
Wouldst thou be fair?”

The woman smiled, “Behold me!
Am I not fair already?” “Who hath told thee
That thou art fair?” the Serpent ask'd. Again
Eve smiled, and answer'd, “Adam.” “Ah, but when?”
He ask'd. And, this time sighing as she smiled,
She said, “Before the birth of our first child.”
“I thought so,” said the Serpent. “Long ago!”
Eve's eyes grew tearful. She replied, “I know
It was but yesterday I chanced to trace
Reflected in a mountain pool the face
That he had praised; and I was satisfied
That certainly, unless the water lied,
Adam was right.” “Was right,” the Serpent said,
“So was last summer sweet.” “Doth beauty fade?”
Eve murmur'd. “Ay, with youth,” said he. “And thou
Canst make me young again?” “Not that. But how,
When young no more, to make thee fair again
I know a way.” “What way?” said Eve. “Explain!”
“It is,” he answer'd, “by adorning thee.”
“And what wouldst thou adorn me with?” said she.
“Myself!” he whisper'd.

Then the Serpent roll'd
His ruby-colour'd rings and coils of gold
Around the form of Eve: her neck enlaced,
And was a necklace; girt her pliant waist,
And was a girdle; with elastic bound
Above her knee his wistful clasp enwound,
And was a garter; with repeated twist
Of twinkling chain entwined her tender wrist,
And was a bracelet. Last of all, her brow
He crown'd, and cried, “Man's Queen, I hail thee now!”

Eve blusht. The sense of some new sexual power
Unknown to all her being till that hour,
Within it kindled a superb surprise.
Back, with half-open'd lips and half-shut eyes,
She lean'd to its rich load her jewell'd head.

And at her ear again the Serpent said,
“By the bright blaze of thine adornment, see
What in the years to come thy sex shall be!
Mere female animal, much weaker than
The male its master, not the Queen of Man,
Scarce even his mate, that sex was born; but more
Than it was born shall it become. Such store
Doth in it lurk of secret subtilty,
Such seed of complex life, as by-and-by
Shall grow into full Woman; and, when grown,
The Woman shall avenge, tho' she disown,
The Female, her forgotten ancestress.
Mother of both, my glittering caress
Now wakes beneath thy bosom's kindled snow
Whole worlds of Womanhood in embryo!
A penal law controls Man's fallen state.
It's name is Progress: and, to stimulate
That progress to its destin'd goal, Decay,
Woman, with growing power, shall all the way
Its course accompany—from happiness
And ignorance to knowledge and distress;
From careless impulse to contrived device;
From spontaneity to artifice;
From simple to sophisticated life;
From faith to doubt, and from repose to strife.
Whilst, still as Progress doth its prey pursue,
The weaker shall the stronger-born subdue,
Man subjugating first those monsters grim
Whose strength is more than his; then, Woman him;
Tho' he born weaker than most beasts, and she
Born weaker even that man's own weakness, be.
So shall the Feminine Force that set him on
Still keep him going till his course be done.
Far hath he yet to travel his long way,
But thou hast started him. And on the day
He lost that Paradise he ne'er had won,
Here was his progress, thanks to thee, begun.
That was Man's first step forward. I perceive
He (thanks again to thee) is on the eve
Of yet another. Good advice to him
Thou gavest, whence he got his winter trim,
So warm and stout. But at that fleecy coat
The beasts, his unprogressive friends, I note,
Begin to look suspiciously askance.
And thence do I predict his next advance.
'Twixt Man and Beast the inevitable strife
Must needs enforce 'twixt Man and Man a life
More artificial. And therefrom shall rise
The Future Woman; form'd to civilize,
Corrupt, and ruin, raise, and overthrow
Cycles of social types that all shall owe
To her creative and destructive sway
Their beauty's blossom, and their strength's decay.
Behold, then, in thyself the primal source
Of Human Progress, and its latest force!
For, since from thee shall thy fair daughters, Eve,
A subtler sex than all thy sons receive,
Their beauty shall complete what thine began,
Thou crown'd Queen Mother of the Queens of Man!”