The Poetry Corner

The Well-Born

By Ella Wheeler Wilcox

So many people - people - in the world; So few great souls, love ordered, well begun, In answer to the fertile mother need! So few who seem The image of the Maker's mortal dream; So many born of mere propinquity - Of lustful habit, or of accident. Their mothers felt No mighty, all-compelling wish to see Their bosoms garden-places Abloom with flower faces; No tidal wave swept o'er them with its flood; No thrill of flesh or heart; no leap of blood; No glowing fire, flaming to white desire For mating and for motherhood: Yet they bore children. God! how mankind misuses Thy command, To populate the earth! How low is brought high birth! How low the woman; when, inert as spawn Left on the sands to fertilise, She is the means through which the race goes on! Not so the first intent. Birth, as the Supreme Mind conceived it, meant The clear imperious call of mate to mate And the clear answer.Only thus and then Are fine, well-ordered, and potential lives Brought into being.Not by Church or State Can birth be made legitimate, Unless Love in its fulness bless. Creation so ordains its lofty laws That man, while greater in all other things, Is lesser in the generative cause. The father may be merely man, the male; Yet more than female must the mother be. The woman who would fashion Souls, for the use of earth and angels meet, Must entertain a high and holy passion. Not rank, or wealth, or influence of kings Can give a soul its dower Of majesty and power, Unless the mother brings Great love to that great hour.