For the dark downward then her soul did reel.

A press of hideous impulse urged to speak:

A novel dread of man enchained her dumb.

She felt the silence thicken, heard it shriek,

Heard Life subsiding on the eternal hum:

Welcome to women, when, between man's laws

And Nature's thirsts, they, soul from body torn,

Give suck at breast to a celestial cause,