Explore "What Then?" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Suppose you write your heart out till the world / Sobs with one voice-what then? / Small agonies that round your heart-strings curled / Strung out for choice, that men / May pick a phrase, each for his own pet pain, / And thank the voice so come, / They being dumb. What then?
You have no sympathy? O endless claim! / No one that cares? What then? / Suppose you had-the whole world knew your name / And your affairs, and men / Ached with your headache, dreamed your dreadful dreams, / And, with your heart-break due, / Their hearts broke too. What then?
You think that people do not understand? / You suffer? Die? What then? / Unhappy child, look here, on either hand, / Look low or high,-all men / Suffer and die, and keep it to themselves! / They die-they suffer sore- / You suffer more? What then?