The Woman of Charm

From the book Are Women People? by Alice Duer Miller, 1915

The Woman of Charm

("I hate a woman who is not a mystery to herself, as well as to me."- The Phoenix.)

IF you want a receipt for that popular mystery
Known to the world as a Woman of Charm,
Take all the conspicuous ladies of history,
Mix them all up without doing them harm.
The beauty of Helen, the warmth of Cleopatra,
Salome's notorious skill in the dance,
The dusky allure of the belles of Sumatra,
The fashion and finish of ladies from France.
The youth of Susanna, beloved by an elder,
The wit of a Chambers' incomparable minx,
The conjugal views of the patient Griselda,
The fire of Sappho, the calm of the Sphinx,
The eyes of La Vallire, the voice of Cordelia,
The musical gifts of the sainted Cecelia,
Trilby and Carmen and Ruth and Ophelia,
Madame de Stal and the matron Cornelia,
Iseult, Hypatia and naughty Nell Gwynn,
Una, Titania and Elinor Glyn.
Take of these elements all that is fusible,
Melt'em all down a pipkin or crucible,
Set'em to simmer and take off the scum,
And a Woman of Charm is the residuum!

(Slightly adapted from W. S. Gilbert.)

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About this book: In 1915, the state-by-state battle for suffrage had won a few battles. Supporters of woman suffrage had multiplied, which also brought anti-suffrage sentiments to the surface to counter the suffrage arguments.

The author of this volume of feminist humor and satire, Alice Duer Miller, wrote many of the pieces for her column in the New York Tribune, "Are Women People?" She also wrote a sequel, published in 1917, Women Are People!

Also on this site:

• About Alice Duer Miller

• Alice Duer Miller Quotations

• Woman Suffrage - Cast of Characters 
• Woman Suffrage Articles and Links 
• Woman and the Republic: An Anti-Suffrage Argument by Helen Kendrick Johnson, 1897, with later additions: the classic arguments against woman suffrage 

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