The Woman's Mind — Summary

Anna Wickham’s speaker has little patience for book learning. Knowledge from books, she says, wearies her; she learns far more readily from words and looks. She asks someone to give themselves to her as freely as air and rain—unguarded, natural, available. In return, she will drink in that presence, think about it, and send flowers again, a gesture of thanks or affection. The tone is warm, direct, and lightly defiant. She is not anti-intellectual; she is claiming a woman’s right to value emotional and sensory understanding alongside, or even above, scholarly knowledge. The poem creates a mood of intimacy and quiet confidence, as if the speaker is setting aside abstract study to meet another person face-to-face.