| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22. | | | | A Poet Advises a Change of Clothes | | By Anna Wickham |
| | | WHY wears my lady a trailing gown, | |
| And the spurious gleam of a stage queen’s crown? | |
| Let her leap to a horse, and be off to the down! | |
| Astride, let her ride | |
| For the sake of my pride, | 5 |
| That she is more ancient than Diana— | |
| Ancient as that she-ape who, lurking among trees, | |
| Dropt on a grazing zebra, gript him with her knees | |
| And was off across the breadths of the savannah; | |
| Barking her primal merry deviltry, | 10 |
| Barking in forecast of her son’s sovereignty. | |
| My timeless lady is as old as she, | |
| And she is moderner moreover | |
| Than Broadway, or an airship, or than Paris lingerie. | |
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| O my eternal dominating dear, | 15 |
| How much less dated thou than Guinevere! | |
| Then for your living lover | |
| Change your gown, | |
| And don your queenship when you doff your crown. | | | | |
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