A Successful Man by Ella Wheeler Wilcox — Read

There was a man who killed a loving maid / In some mad mood of passion; and he paid / The price, upon a scaffold. Now his name / Stands only as a synonym for shame. / There was another man, who took to wife / A loving woman. She was full of life, / Of hope, and aspirations; and her pride / Clothed her like some rich mantle.

First, the wide / Glad stream of life that through her veins had sway / He dammed by rocks, cast in it, day by day. / Her flag of hope, flung gaily to the world, / He placed half mast, and then hauled down, and furled. / The aspirations, breathing in each word, / By subtle ridicule, were made absurd:

The delicate fine mantle of her pride, / With rude unfeeling hands, was wrenched aside: / And by mean avarice, or vulgar show, / Her quivering woman's heart was made to know / That she was but a chattel, bought to fill / Whatever niche might please the buyer's will.

So she was murdered, while the slow years went. / And her assassin, honoured, opulent, / Lived with no punishment, or social ban! / ‘A good provider, a successful man. '