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.