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A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

A Modern Proposal

Alice Duer Miller

(It has been said that the feminist movement is the true
solution of the mother-in-law problem.)


Sylvia, my dear, I would be yours with pleasure,
  All that you are seems excellent to me,
Except your mother, who’s much more at leisure
  Than mothers ought to be.

Find her a fad, a job, an occupation,
  Eugenics, dancing, uplift, yes, or crime,
Set her to work for her Emancipation—
  That takes a lot of time.

Or, if the suffrage doctrine fails to charm her,
  There are the Antis—rather in her line—
Guarding the Home from Maine to Alabama
  Would keep her out of mine.
Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From Are Women People?
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