The Un-Sexed Female Poem by Sidi Mahtrow

It was a masterly delivered stroke
That removed man's yoke
Freeing her and kindred souls
From childbearing and rearing toils.
So that they at once were free
From whatever it was they sought to flee.

The Un-sexed Females chanted the siren's song
As they encouraged others to come along
'Be not just free but in command
So that you no longer take orders from simple man.

Having cast aside the burdens of motherhood
We all are members of a higher brotherhood
That permits us to practice a level of passion
In escaping from 'man's' domination.'

They profess to be
Of the fairer sex as we see.
(But harbor a bit of chemistry of late
That confuses their fate
And gives them a boost where there is need
To be Unsexed Females indeed.
Testosterone it's called
Which appears in sexes, all.)

But this is not a new event
As they would insist.
For the Jocobians and others
Followed the lead of females
Who in times of old
Were seen as doing things most bold.
And in more recent times
There was the axe wielding females of great-grandmother's time.
Who rose up against demon rum
And bashed barrels and th' heads of some.

So what became of those so arrogant
To think that they could by shouts and rant
Control the nation's laboring souls
Who toiled without, in heat and cold.

All slipped away from sight of press
That discovered that there were other issues to address
And let the 'ladies' go their way
When the Nation's interest came into sway.

Now again we hear the clarion call
Of voracious voices from spring to fall
When the babble seems to be
Rising up from the primordial sea.

Man (and woman too)
Discovers that there is much to do
But following the lemmings o'er the cliff
Is hardly the way to abide mischief.

Calmer voices will be heard
Away from the chant of the misguided herd
The nation and the world will turn
And reason will return.
To address the needs of Mother Earth
And bury those who have renounced their right of birth.

Note: Richard Polwhele penned the poem, 'The Unsex'd Females' in 1798 where he addressed the Jocobian (French laissez faire attitudes toward life, liberty and pursuits of happiness.) With copious notes, Polwhele drew analogies between the activities of some liberated women of the times with those described by Plutarch in his Lives of Lycurgus and Numa (ca 840 BC) .

Polwhele was an admirer of Thomas Mathias and his book, Pursuits of Literature (which was published citing 'anonymous' as the author.) Mathias didn't return the favor.

The quote in Polwhele's book:
'Our unsex'd female writers now instruct, or confuse, us and themselves, in the labyrinth of politics, or turn us wild with Gallic frenzy.' Appears on pp 204 in the 7th American edition published in 1800.