Please interpret the poem 'Women's rights' by Annie Louisa Walker...?

Question

Please be highly descriptive in your interpretation....give it your best shot

Additional Details

here's the poem.....
You cannot rob us of the rights we cherish,
Nor turn our thoughts away
From the bright picture of a "Woman's Mission"
Our hearts portray.

We claim to dwell, in quiet and seclusion,
Beneath the household roof,--
From the great world's harsh strife, and jarring voices,
To stand aloof;--

Not in a dreamy and inane abstraction
To sleep our life away,
But, gathering up the brightness of home sunshine,
To deck our way.

As humble plants by country hedgerows growing,
That treasure up the rain,
And yield in odours, ere the day's declining,
The gift again;

So let us, unobtrusive and unnoticed,
But happy none the less,
Be privileged to fill the air around us
With happiness;

To live, unknown beyond the cherished circle,
Which we can bless and aid;
To die, and not a heart that does not love us
Know where we're laid.

Answer 1

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I’m not going to give it my best shot, but offhand, this reads like an “anti-suffragist” poem – a poem arguing against suffrage (the vote) and political rights for women. So the title “Women’s Rights’ should be read somewhat ironically … the poet’s suggesting that women’s rights aren’t to vote or participate in public life, but to be the angels of the house.

That mission – to be a lovely domestic angel – is the Mission portrayed in women’s hearts.

Women’s “right” is to stand apart from (“aloof”) from the “great world’s harsh strife, and jarring voices” and to stay clear of the “inane abstractions” of politics. In other words, politics is too noisy and argumentative and abstract for the dainty, women’s hearts. (Recall Barbara Bush’s statement that she shouldn’t have to “waste her beautiful mind” looking at pictures of body bags of dead soldiers returning from Iraq. http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/…

Women’s right is to live unnoticed and to avoid fame – to live in a smaller, domestic world, and to make that world more beautiful for their families.

It’s an early backlash poem. I assume.