Margaret Fuller Slack

I would have been as great as George Eliot*
But for an untoward fate.
For look at the photograph of me made by Penniwit,
Chin resting on hand, and deep-set eyes--
Gray, too, and far searching.
But there was the old, old problem:
Should it be celibacy, matrimony or unchastity?
Then John Slack, the rich druggist, wooed me,
Luring me with the promise of leisure for my novel,
And I married him, giving birth to eight children,
And had no time to write.
It was all over with me, anyway,
When I ran the needle in my hand
While washing the baby's things,
And died from lock-jaw, an ironical death.
Hear me, ambitious souls,
Sex is the curse of life.

*George Eliot was the pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans 1819-1880 English novelist

1. What was her great ambition?
2. Why was it not achieved?
3. Define celibacy.
4. How is her death ironic? What does her name suggest about her?

MARGARET FULLER SLACK

This poem combines details associated with the two wives of Dr. William S. Strode, a physician and amateur naturalist of Bernadotte and, later, Lewistown.