Read "Two Women" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
I know two women, and one is chaste / And cold as the snows on a winter waste, / Stainless ever in act and thought / (As a man, born dumb, in speech errs not). / But she has malice toward her kind, / A cruel tongue and a jealous mind. / Void of pity and full of greed, / She judges the world by her narrow creed; / A brewer of quarrels, a breeder of hate, / Yet she holds the key to "Society's" Gate.
The other woman, with heart of flame, / Went mad for a love that marred her name: / And out of the grave of her murdered faith / She rose like a soul that has passed through death. / Her aims are noble, her pity so broad, / It covers the world like the mercy of God. / A soother of discord, a healer of woes, / Peace follows her footsteps wherever she goes. / The worthier life of the two, no doubt, / And yet "Society" locks her out.