Comments on: What of Thy Victory, O Woman?

By: SLK

SLK — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:11:18 +0000

God gave to men the leadership; of them he will require
The answer to your questions; they build our altar fire.

Couldn’t that also be read as a bare statement of political fact? Women in 1920 (as well as earlier in Utah and the other states with woman suffrage) depended on male voters and legislators for the right to vote…

By: Carol

Carol — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:01:55 +0000

“A stream can never higher rise than its own level source.”

One drop of water or one branch of a stream can’t rise higher than the level of the water. A man, even a leader, cannot rise higher than the group. Being a leader may be his job, but it doesn’t make him higher in the sense of being worth more.

It think it’s a pretty good way to explain it.

By: Grant

Grant — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 03:40:19 +0000

Yeah, and they apparently voted along with the men for Harding, one of the worst presidents on my list. So much “For truth, for righteousness, and faith, for purity and light.”

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 22:31:11 +0000

Ardis, after I wrote my comment I re-read the poem and came to the same conclusion you did. I am clearly reading the line I called out with early 21st century eyes, not early 20th century ones!

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 22:08:45 +0000

I should have refreshed my screen before commenting.

Yes, Paul, it was a RS Magazine poem (October 1920), and Sister Gibbs’s name is familiar so she must have written other things.

I’ll amend my “poem of equality” comment to say “under the definition of equality of a generation that sees no conflict between equality and male presiding.”

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 22:05:50 +0000

Frankly, I’m not entirely sure, either. It sounds as though Woman, newly enfranchised by the 19th amendment, is sure she deserves the vote, but is also telling Man that he is as responsible for home and family as she is. He accepts the challenge.

Unless some reader can spot anything contradictory, I’m taking it as a poem of equality between man and woman, both at home and in the world.

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 21:48:40 +0000

It is ironic for me that this poem celebrates women’s suffrage (won in 1920 in the US), yet still claims “God gave to men the leadership…”

Ardis, was this a RS Magazine published item? Sister Gibbs had other things published there, right?

By: Amy T

Amy T — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:33:49 +0000

I confess I can’t quite tell what she means.