Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off, George and Ira Gershwin
Why Can’t a Woman Be More Like a Man? Lerner and Lowe (My Fair Lady)
A Toast to the Men, Edgar Albert Guest
Women’s Poem, Anonymous
Marry the Man Today, Frank Loesser
The Strength of a Man, Jacqueline Griffiths
I Can’t Say No, Oscar Hammerstein
A Man and a Woman, Alan Feldman
Difference of Opinion, Wendy Cope
General Review of the Sex Situation, Dorothy Parker
Love Song, Dorothy Parker
The Little Old Lady in Lavender Silk, Dorothy Parker
Man and Woman, Victor Hugo (translated) (excerpts)
How Does It Feel to be a Man, Hafez
It Happens All The Time in Heaven, Hafez
* * *
But the Men, Tony Hoagland
Dance Me To The End of Love, by Leonard Cohen
I’m an Ordinary Man, Lerner and Lowe (My Fair Lady)
Men, by Dorianne Laux
The Imagined, Stephen Dunn
Marriage a-la-Mode, John Dryden
How It Will End, Denise Duhamel
Anyone Lived In a Pretty How Town, E.E. Cummings
He and She, Celia Dropkin
Anything You Can Do (Annie Get Your Gun), by Irving Berlin
Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off
by George and Ira Gershwin
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Why Can’t a Woman Be More Like a Man?
by Lerner and Lowe
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A Toast to the Men
by Edgar Albert Guest
Here’s to the men! Since Adam’s time
They’ve always been the same;
Whenever anything goes wrong,
The woman is to blame.
From early morn to late at night,
The men fault-finders are;
They blame us if they oversleep,
Or if they miss a car.
They blame us if, beneath the bed,
Their collar buttons roll;
They blame us if the fire is out
Or if there is no coal.
They blame us if they cut themselves
While shaving, and they swear
That we’re to blame if they decide
To go upon a tear.
Here’s to the men, the perfect men!
Who never are at fault;
They blame us if they chance to get
The pepper for the salt.
They blame us if their business fails,
Or back a losing horse;
And when it rains on holidays
The fault is ours, of course.
They blame us when they fall in love,
And when they married get;
Likewise they blame us when they’re sick,
And when they fall in debt.
For everything that crisscross goes
They say we are to blame;
But, after all, here’s to the men,
We love them just the same!
Woman’s Poem
Anonymous
Before I lay me down to sleep,
I pray for a man who’s not a creep,
One who’s handsome, smart and strong.
One who loves to listen long,
One who thinks before he speaks,
One who’ll call, not wait for weeks.
I pray he’s rich and self-employed,
And when I spend, won’t be annoyed.
Pull out my chair and hold my hand.
Massage my feet and help me stand.
Oh send a king to make me queen.
A man who loves to cook and clean.
I pray this man will love no other.
And relish visits with my mother.
Marry The Man Today
by Frank Loesser
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The Strength of a Man
by Jacqueline Griffiths
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I Can’t Say No
by Oscar Hammerstein
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A Man and a Woman
by Alan Feldman
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Difference of Opinion
by Wendy Cope
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General Review of the Sex Situation
by Dorothy Parker
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Love Song
by Dorothy Parker
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The Little Old Lady in Lavender Silk
by Dorothy Parker
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Man and Woman (excerpts)
by Victor Hugo
Man is the highest of creatures.
Woman is the most sublime of ideals.
God made for man a throne, for the woman an altar.
The throne exalts, the altar sanctifies.
Man is the brain.
The woman heart.
The brain produces the light, the heart produces the Love . . . .
The man is strong by reason.
The woman is invincible by tears.
The reason convinces, tears move . . . .
Man is a genius.
Woman an angel.
Genius is immeasurable, the angel indefinable.
The aspiration of man is supreme glory.
The aspiration of woman is extreme virtue.
The glory makes everything great, virtue makes everything divine . . . .
Man thinks.
She dreams . . . .
Man is an ocean.
Woman is a lake.
The ocean has the adorning pearl, the lake, dazzling poetry.
Man is the flying eagle.
She is the nightingale that sings.
Flying is to dominate space. Singing is to conquer the soul . . . .
Man is placed where the land ends.
Woman where heaven begins.
How Does It Feel to be a Man
by Hafez
Once a young woman asked me,
“How does it feel to be a man?” And I replied,
“My dear, I am not so sure.”
Then she said, “Well, aren’t you a man?”
And this time I replied,
“I view gender
As a beautiful animal
That people often take for a walk on a leash
And might enter in some odd contest
To try to win strange prizes.
My dear,
A better question for Hafiz
Would have been,
‘How does it feel to be a heart?’
For all I know is Love,
And I find my heart Infinite
And Everywhere!”
It Happens All The Time
by Hafez
It happens all the time in heaven,
And some day
It will begin to happen
Again on earth –
That men and women who are married,
And men and men who are
Lovers,
And women and women
Who give each other
Light,
Often will get down on their knees
And while so tenderly
Holding their lover’s hand,
With tears in their eyes,
Will sincerely speak, saying,
‘My dear,
How can I be more loving to you;
How can I be more
Kind?’