The Workman's Wife: (A Ballad, By Request, For 'The British Workman' Paper) Poem by Martin Farquhar Tupper

O true British goodwife, a word in your ear
To help your home-comfort and gladden its cheer,
That husband and children and neighbours and you
May all be more happy and tender and true.

When Marriage bloom'd first in the Garden of Bliss
God led up to Adam an Eve such as this -
A woman obedient gentle and wise
A wife full of love in her heart and her eyes!

And some such there be in all stations and ranks
For whom their glad husbands give Providence and thanks,-
The Queen of three kingdoms and factory-Jane
Make Edens of Windsor and Lilliput Lane!

But woe! that corruption, which ruins us all
Has dropt in the honeycup wormwood and gall,
And many an Adam and many an Eve
In hot married misery grumble and grieve.

I wot there be women that quarrel and scold
And rage in their rooms like the wolf in the fold;
I wot there be men that are brutal and base,
And homes that are hells of Despair and Disgrace.

How many a workman must wearily come
From the toils of the day to a curse-stricken home,
Where worries and jealousies, temper and tongue,
Like adders and brands on his pillow are flung!

And often, O horror! the demon of drink
Drops in to allure to the precipice brink,
Till brutalised husband and termagant wife
Arouse the whole lane with their murderous strife.

O touch not,- O taste not, let bitterness cease;
Make home, better housewife, the palace of peace;
Let order and comfort and quiet be there
And cheerful contentment and charity fair;

Then, credit me, goodwife, no husband will lack
Of love or of truth, if you so win him back;
If homes are made Edens by Eves that are wise
Then husbands are Adams in Old Paradise!