Explore "Coming (the Forerunner)" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Because the time is ripe, the age is ready, / Because the world her woman's help demands, / Out of the long subjection and seclusion / Come to our field of warfare and confusion / The mother's heart and hands.
Long has she stood aside, endured and waited, / While man swung forward, toiling on alone; / Now, for the weary man, so long ill-mated, / Now, for the world for which she was created, / Comes woman to her own.
Not for herself! though sweet the air of freedom; / Not for herself, though dear the new-born power; / But for the child, who needs a nobler mother, / For the whole people, needing one another, / Comes woman to her hour.