Tennyson's - "The Woman's Cause Is Man's"

"For woman is not undevelpt man,
But diverse: could we make her as the man,
Sweet Love were slain: His dearest bond is this,
Not like to like, but like in difference."

I read Tennyson's "The Woman's Cause Is Man's" as an incredibly moving tribute to the inherent differences between women and men. Rather than seeing these differences as bad or a cause of strain, Tennyson sees the differences between the sexes as good and complimentary to one another. I believe that he is speaking of married couples when he says

"Yet in the long years liker must they grow;
The man be more of a woman, she of man;
He gain in sweetness and in moral height,
Nor lose the wrestling thews that throw the world;
She mental breadth, nor fail in childward care,
Nor lose the childlike in the larger mind;"

Here Tennyson explains that after years of living together and loving one another, the husband is gentler, while still maintaining his role of protector and the wife had expanded her intellectual self without loosing her maternal instincts.

In the final few lines when the speaker asks if people can understand and live by his image of how marriage can be, his wife answers no. They then resolve as a couple to respect each others individuality while working to truly become as one. Tennyson writes

"Nor equal, nor unequal; each fulfils
Defect in each, and always thought in thought,
Purpose in purpose, will in will, they grow,
The single pure and perfect animal,
The two-cell'd heart beating, with one full stroke,
Life."

While Tennyson's words sound very romantic, I also see them as being based in the reality, that 2 working in unison can accomplish much more than 1 alone. Merely feeling that you are not alone in your pursuits brings encouragement.

The speakers wife response "A dream
That once was mine! what woman taught you this?"

I found this to be a playful response...maybe even her way of acknowledging that her husband has become more gentle...more like her. The appeal of this piece to me surely comes from my hopes for my sons recent marriage. As I read this poem, I was reminded of the minister's words to them, and of their vows to one another and I realized that these words written about marriage in the mid-19th century are as applicable today as they were then.