'Now Let No Charitable Hope' - Line-By-Line Analysis Flashcards
Now let no charitable hope
Confuse my mind with images
Of eagle and of antelope:
I am by nature none of these.
Analyse the lines in bold.
Abruptly, without introduction, the speaker makes a kind of wish or prayer: that “hope” will not “Confuse [her] mind” with misleading “images.” Specifically, she seems to fear that “hope” (here personified as a potential source of false ideas) will flatter her into thinking she’s particularly impressive—like an “eagle” or “antelope.”
Now let no charitable hope
Confuse my mind with images
Of eagle and of antelope:
I am by nature none of these.
Analyse the lines in bold.
Symbolically, these animals often represent grace, beauty, physical prowess, and/or freedom. The speaker doesn’t believe she embodies these kinds of virtues, and she doesn’t want “charitable” (here meaning overly generous) hope to fool her into believing otherwise. As line 5 will state, she knows she’s only “human.”
Now let no charitable hope
Confuse my mind with images
Of eagle and of antelope:
I am by nature none of these.
Analyse the lines in bold.
This speaker seems to be seeking a realistic perspective on her life, and on human life in general. She knows that human nature has its limits, and she knows hopeful illusions can make people forget those limits. She’s guarding herself against a common mistake—possibly one that she’s made in the past and wants to avoid “Now.” At the same time, she’s trying to express, humbly and directly, what her true “nature” is.
Now let no charitable hope
Confuse my mind with images
Of eagle and of antelope:
I am by nature none of these.
Explain the Structure of lines 1-4.
These opening lines establish the poem’s form: quatrains that use iambic tetrameter (a da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM, da-DUM rhythm) and an ABAB rhyme scheme. Alliteration in lines 1 and 4 (“Now”/”no”; “nature none”) underscores the negative words “no” and “none,” adding emphasis to the speaker’s rejection of false hope.
I was, being human, born alone;
I am, being woman, hard beset;
I live by squeezing from a stone
What little nourishment I get.
What do lines 5-8 talk about?
Lines 5-8 sum up the speaker’s life experience in a few short statements, which add up, again, to one stanza-length sentence. (The poem contains three equal-sized stanzas, each composed of a single sentence—an effect that enhances its balanced, orderly, logical quality.)
I was, being human, born alone;
I am, being woman, hard beset;
I live by squeezing from a stone
What little nourishment I get.
Analyse the lines in bold.
Like line 4 in the previous stanza, lines 5-7 all begin with “I.” This repetition (specifically an example of anaphora) makes the poem seem personal, even if it’s not especially confessional. This speaker is defining herself and her experience: what “I was,” what “I am,” and how “I live.”
The first two lines of the stanza use a parallel structure to make complementary claims. First, the speaker suggests that she has experienced loneliness as an inevitable part of “being human”; then, she suggests that she’s been “beset” by difficulties as an inevitable part of “being woman”:
In other words, all human beings suffer, but being a woman comes with special challenges. (There’s an implied feminist statement here; the speaker indicates that the world is especially “hard” on, or hostile to, women.)
These lines also contain the poem’s only caesuras. The four mid-line commas slow the language down noticeably, so that the lines themselves seem to struggle, just as the speaker has struggled.
I was, being human, born alone;
I am, being woman, hard beset;
I live by squeezing from a stone
What little nourishment I get.
Analyse the lines in bold.
The last two lines of the stanza play on a common metaphor for attempting the impossible: trying to squeeze blood from a stone. According to the speaker,
I live by squeezing from a stone
What little nourishment I get.
In other words, her “nourishment” (literal food, metaphorical rewards, and everything in between) doesn’t come easily. Simply sustaining herself in a hostile world requires exhausting effort.
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.
What does lines 9-12 present?
The final stanza (lines 9-12) presents a metaphor for the passage of time. In the process, it expresses the speaker’s general attitude toward time, aging, and the future.
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.
Analyse the lines in bold.
The speaker imagines “The years” as figures “go[ing] by in single file,” wearing “masks outrageous and austere.” In other words, she pictures the years of her life as a parade passing one by one, sporting bizarre and/or severe-looking disguises. The “masks” make the years seem unknowable and a little frightening; clearly, they reflect the speaker’s anxieties about the future (and/or about aging).
In the end, however, the speaker contemplates these “years”—the passage of time—as serenely and stoically as she accepts life’s hardships.
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.
Analyse the line in bold.
Once again, the parallel phrasing gives her thoughts a calm, balanced clarity. The years have never been as bad as she “fear[ed],” nor have they ever failed to bring her some happiness.
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.
Analyse the line in bold.
That is, they haven’t “quite escaped [her] smile”—a phrasing that seems to acknowledge that some years have brought only a little happiness. (Compare the “little nourishment” she mentions in the previous stanza.)
All in all, the speaker accepts her limitations as a human being and recognizes the fundamental difficulty of life. Yet she ultimately finds no reason to “fear,” and at least some reason to “smile,” as she faces the future.
