 | Poems and dramas of George Cabot Lodge |  |
170
[We have loathed him, we have loved him, we have lived for him and died for him]
I
We have loathed him, we have loved him, we have lived for him and died for him;
We have agonized and wearied in the travail of his birth;
We have lured him and procured him, we have sinned for him and lied for him,
And known what he was worth to us—and known what he was worth!
We have agonized and wearied in the travail of his birth;
We have lured him and procured him, we have sinned for him and lied for him,
And known what he was worth to us—and known what he was worth!
We have never dared to trust him, never dared to tell the truth to him:
We have done the work and waited; we have borne the pain and smiled;
We have been despair and evil, virtue, aspiration, youth to him;
We have cheated him and charmed him, for we knew he was a child!
We have done the work and waited; we have borne the pain and smiled;
We have been despair and evil, virtue, aspiration, youth to him;
We have cheated him and charmed him, for we knew he was a child!
We were never what he thought us, never what he said we seemed to him;
And of course we never told him, and of course we never cared:
We have been the thing he loved, the strength he lacked, the dreams he dreamed to him,
And for what his love conceived us he has worked and sung and dared.
And of course we never told him, and of course we never cared:
We have been the thing he loved, the strength he lacked, the dreams he dreamed to him,
171
And our hearts have bled and broken, and our flesh—God knows!—has burned for him:
In despair and pain and passion we have loved him—as we must!
For his children and his labour we have schemed for him and yearned for him,
Believed his boast and soothed his tears, assuaged and shared his lust.
In despair and pain and passion we have loved him—as we must!
For his children and his labour we have schemed for him and yearned for him,
Believed his boast and soothed his tears, assuaged and shared his lust.
We have loved him without reason, without stint, without surcease of him;
We have feared his wrath and weakness, feared his madness, feared his fears;
We have tamed him and caressed him, and our lives have had no peace of him:
For his Gods and greeds and glories cost our blood and sweat and tears! ...
We have feared his wrath and weakness, feared his madness, feared his fears;
We have tamed him and caressed him, and our lives have had no peace of him:
For his Gods and greeds and glories cost our blood and sweat and tears! ...
He has made us to his pleasure: we have had the senseless worst of him;
We have made him to our purpose, then and now and still the same!
And as wife and slave and mistress, now adored and now accursed of him,
We have bought, seduced, compelled him to our sacred single aim.
We have made him to our purpose, then and now and still the same!
And as wife and slave and mistress, now adored and now accursed of him,
172
Yes, we triumph! He is ours!—But ours, we know, is not the whole of him!
Weak and stupid, vain or vicious, we possess, who care and can;
But we learn, when he escapes in truth and spirit all control of him,
That while we are always woman, he is less—and more than man! ...
Weak and stupid, vain or vicious, we possess, who care and can;
But we learn, when he escapes in truth and spirit all control of him,
That while we are always woman, he is less—and more than man! ...
| Poems and dramas of George Cabot Lodge | |