UFRGS FIS LIT ENG 2013

[1] Advice Gratis to Certain Women – By a Woman

O, my strong-minded sisters, aspiring to vote,

And to row with your brothers, all in the same boat,

When you come out to speak to the public your mind,

[5] Leave your tricks, and your airs, and your graces behind!

For instance, when you by the world would be seen

As reporter, or editor (first-class, I mean),

I think – just to come to the point in one line –

What you write will be finer, if 'tis not too fine.

[10] Pray, don't let the thread of your subject be strung

With "golden," and "shimmer," "sweet," "filter," and "flung;"

Nor compel, by your style, all your readers to guess

You've ........ looking up words Webster marks obs.

And another thing: whatever else you may say,

[15] Do keep personalities out of the way;

Don't try every sentence to make people see

What a dear, charming creature the writer must be!

Don't mistake me; I mean that the public's not home,

You must do as the Romans do, when you're in Rome;

[20] I would have you be womanly, while you are wise;

'Tis the weak and the womanish tricks I despise.

'Tis a good thing to write, and to rule in the state,

But to be a true, womanly woman is great:

And if ever you come to be that, 'twill be when

[25] You can cease to be babies, nor try to be men!

Adaptado de: CAREY, Phoebe. Advice Gratis to Certain Women. In: RATTINER, Susan (ed.). Great Poems by American Women: An Anthology. Mineola: Dover Thrift, 1998. p. 72.