The New Woman

THE stone that all the sullen centuries,
 With sluggish hands and massive fingers rude,
 Against the sepulchre of womanhood
 Had sternly held, she has thrust back with ease,
 And stands, superbly arrogant, the keys
 Of knowledge in her hand, won by a mood
 Of daring, in her beauty flaunting nude,
 Eager to drain life's wine unto the lees.  
  So she shall tempt and touch and try and taste,
 And in the wrestle of the world shall lose
 Her dimpled prettiness, her petals bruise;
 But moulding ever to a truer type
 She shall return to man, no more abased—
 His counterpart, a woman, rounded, ripe.