Explore "In Duty Bound" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
In duty bound, a life hemmed in / Whichever way the spirit turns to look; / No chance of breaking out, except by sin; / Not even room to shirk- / Simply to live, and work.
An obligation pre-imposed, unsought, / Yet binding with the force of natural law; / The pressure of antagonistic thought; / Aching within, each hour, / A sense of wasting power.
A house with roof so darkly low / The heavy rafters shut the sunlight out; / One cannot stand erect without a blow; / Until the soul inside / Cries for a grave-more wide.
A consciousness that if this thing endure, / The common joys of life will dull the pain; / The high ideals of the grand and pure / Die, as of course they must, / Of long disuse and rust.
That is the worst. It takes supernal strength / To hold the attitude that brings the pain; / And they are few indeed but stoop at length / To something less than best, / To find, in stooping, rest.