Ella Wheeler Wilcox,
Poems of Experience — Battle Hymn of the Women
(1917)
“ For the sleepers, who in darkness, slumber, still. In the guarded harem prison, Where they smother under veils, And all echoes of the world are walled away; Though the sun has not yet risen, Yet the ancient darkness pales, And the sleepers, in their slumber, dream of day. And their dream shall grow in splendour Till each sleeper wakes, and stirs; Till she breaks from old traditions, and is free; And the world shall rise, and render Unto woman what is hers, As it welcomes in the race that is to be. ”
