by Elinor Wylie (1885 - 1928)
Now let no charitable hope
Language: English
Now let no charitable hope Confuse my mind with images Of eagle and of antelope: I am in nature none of these. I was, being human, born alone; I am, being woman, hard beset; I live by squeezing from a stone The 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.
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Text Authorship:
- by Elinor Wylie (1885 - 1928), "Let no charitable hope", appears in Black Armour: A Book of Poems, first published 1923 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Ned Rorem (1923 - 2022), "Now let no charitable hope", published 1979 [ soprano and piano ], from Women's Voices, no. 1 [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 12
Word count: 71