Now Let No Charitable Hope by Elinor Morton Wylie

Below, you’ll find the full poem ‘Now Let No Charitable Hope’ by Elinor Morton Wylie.

Now let no charitable hope

Confuse my mind with images

Of eagle and of antelope:

I am by nature none of these.

 

I was, being human, born alone;

I am, being woman, hard beset;

I live by squeezing from a stone

What little nourishment I get.

 

In masks outrageous and austere

The years go by in single file;

But none has merited my fear,

And none has quite escaped my smile.

Elinor Morton Wylie

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