Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale (1788–1879)

The Empire of Woman—A Series of Sonnets

EARTH held no symbol, had no living sign

To image forth the mother’s deathless love;

And so the tender care the righteous prove

Beneath the ever-watching Eye Divine

Was given as type to show how pure a shrine

The mother’s heart was hallowed from above;

And how her mortal hopes must intertwine

With hopes immortal;—and she may not move

From this high station which our Saviour sealed

When in maternal arms he lay revealed.

O, wondrous power and little understood,

Intrusted to the mother’s mind alone,

To fashion genius, form the soul for good,

Inspire a Wirt, or train a Washington!