A Model Female

A Model Female.[1]

Look on you lovely woman! Truly she
Deserves the reverence to goodness due;
For she is no gay butterfly, but true
To all that elevates humanity;
And much intelligence behind that brow 5
Dwells in her brain; and none will e’er receive
Unkindness from her, or have cause to grieve
That they put trust in her: all that is low
In thought or action she does e’er despise,
All that is good in her life’s web doth weave; 10
Her simplest word one always may believe
More than most oaths, which oft are arrant lies.
It is not merely a fine form or force
Fits women to be wives and mothers of their race.

George Markham Tweddell
[Rhymes in M/S, notional p. 75]
[[1] The original tile is ‘A Female Model’.]

A True Woman.
A graceful form, and face that ne’er deceives
Any who gaze upon its cheerful glow;
So light her footstep that it scarcely leaves
Its impress on the newly-fallen snow.
Her’s is a finely, cultivated mind, 5
From every vulgar prejudice most free;
And we may travel far and wide to find
A model of such perfect purity.
She has no lack of female gentleness,
But for all suffering has been sympathy; 10
Her strongest wish is human kind to bless,
And make our Earth a Paradise to be,
I long no holier angel e’er to see,
Either in this life or through all eternity.

George Markham Tweddell
[Rhymes in M/S, notional p. 81]
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From Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Wollstonecraft"Mary Wollstonecraft states that currently many women are silly and superficial (she refers to them, for example, as "spaniels" and "toys", but argues that this is not because of an innate deficiency of mind but rather because men have denied them access to education. Wollstonecraft is intent on illustrating the limitations that women's deficient educations have placed on them; she writes: "Taught from their infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and, roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison." She implies that, without the encouragement young women receive from an early age to focus their attention on beauty and outward accomplishments, women could achieve much more."