Now let no charitable hope <br />Confuse my mind with images <br />Of eagle and of antelope: <br />I am by nature none of these. <br /> <br />I was, being human, born alone; <br />I am, being woman, hard beset; <br />I live by squeezing from a stone <br />What little nourishment I get. <br /> <br />In masks outrageous and austere <br />The years go by in single file; <br />But none has merited my fear, <br />And none has quite escaped my smile.<br /><br />Elinor Morton Wylie<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/now-let-no-charitable-hope/
