Ben Jonson

June 11, 1572 - August 6, 1637

 

That Women Are But Men's Shadows

by Ben Jonson

Follow a shadow, it still flies you,
Seem to fly it, it will pursue:
So court a mistress, she denies you;
Let her alone, she will court you.
Say are not women truly, then,
Styled but the shadows of us men?

At morn and even shades are longest;
At noon they are or short or none:
So men at weakest, they are strongest,
But grant us perfect, they 're not known.
Say are not women truly, then,
Styled but the shadows of us men?

Source:

Plays And Poems, 2nd Edition
Copyright 1886
George Routledge And Son, Broadway, Ludgate Hill, New York: 9 Lafayette Place