Explore "Exiles" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Exiled from home. The far sea rolls / Between them and the country of their birth; / The childhood-turning impulse of their souls / Pulls half across the earth. / Exiled from home. No mother to take care / That they work not too hard, grieve not too sore; / No older brother nor small sister fair; / No father any more.
Exiled from home; from all familiar things; / The low-browed roof, the grass-surrounded door; / Accustomed labors that gave daylight wings; / Loved steps on the worn floor.
Exiled from home. Young girls sent forth alone / When most their hearts need close companioning; / No love and hardly friendship may they own, / No voice of welcoming.
Blinded with homesick tears the exile stands; / To toil for alien household gods she comes; / A servant and a stranger in our lands, / Homeless within our homes.