J. Pauline Smith, "The Club Woman" (1922)
Hers to fill the vacant place
And do the thing that none else sees;
To all life's vexing problems face
And many an unfair burden ease;
To stand beside the working girl,
And all who, silent, suffer wrong;
To soften commerce's busy whirl
With just a little bit of song;
To be in home, in church and state
A power that ever makes for good,
Whose purpose is to elevate
And nobler make all womanhood;
To so enlarge the mind and eye
That life, tho' immanent with Duty,
Over it the humblest may descry
The perfect rainbow arc of Beauty;
To have it broadly understood,
Thro' ways that seem but purely human,
That naught which makes for sisterhood
Is foreign to the true club woman.
Published in Exceeding Riches, 1922