Now Let No Charitable Hope

- Author’s background
Name: Elinor Wylie
Elinor Wylie, born on September 7, 1885, in Somerville, New Jersey, was an American
poet and novelist celebrated for her elegant and romantic verse. Raised in Washington,
D.C., she attended private schools before marrying Philip Simmons in 1905, a
prominent literary figure, and bearing children. Wylie's literary journey commenced with
the publication of her inaugural poetry collection, "Nets to Catch the Wind," in 1921.
Often exploring themes of love, desire, and mortality, she became associated with the
New Romanticism movement. Her notable works include "Trivial Breath" (1928) and
"Angels and Earthly Creatures" (1929). Despite her literary success, Wylie grappled
with mental illness, eventually passing away on December 16, 1928, at the age of 43.
- Summary
‘Now Let No Charitable Hope’ by Elinor Wylie depicts a female speaker’s oppressed
place in society, and hers struggle to take some joy in life. In the first lines of the poem,
the speaker begins by reminding herself that she’s not free. Even though she might like
to be, she isn’t a free-flying or running eagle or antelope. She’s of a different breed, a
human born alone and female. This has complicated her life and made it much harder
for her to take pleasure from it. It’s so difficult to find happiness that she compares the
process to squeezing a stone. In the final lines, she suggests that she’s been wearing a
mask, one that is austere and outrageous throughout her days.
- Themes
In ‘Now Let No Charitable Hope,’ Elinor Wylie engages with themes of women’s lives
and women’s rights, as well as oppression/freedom, sorrow/joy. Wylie’s speaker,
who may very well be Wylie herself, describes her life as one filled with a struggle for
happiness. It doesn’t seem as though anything comes easily to this speaker. She works
to try to make a life for herself, but her gender impedes her as men put up roadblocks to
her happiness. She longs for the kind of freedom that wild animals have but has to
remind herself that this kind of life isn’t for her. It’s unclear at the end of the poem
whether or not the speaker ever found a way to be truly happy or if sorrow penetrated
every moment of her life.
- Structure/Form
‘Now Let No Charitable Hope’ by Elinor Wylie is a three-stanza poem that is separated
into sets of four lines, known as quatrains. These quatrains follow a simple rhyme
scheme of ABAB, changing end sounds from stanza to stanza. The structure is
consistent throughout, with all the lines around the same length. All the lines contain
eight syllables except for the first two lines of the second stanza.
- Literary Devices
Wylie makes use of several literary devices in ‘Now Let No Charitable Hope.’ These
include but are not limited to enjambment, anaphora, and caesura. The first of these,
enjambment, is a common formal device that occurs when the poet cuts off a sentence
or phrase before its natural stopping point. For example, the transition between lines
one and two of the first stanza as well as lines three and four of the second stanza.
Anaphora is a kind of repetition, one that’s concerned with the use and reuse of the
same word or words at the beginning of multiple lines. For example, “I,” which starts the
last line of the first stanza and the first three lines of the second stanza. “I am” starts two
of these as well.
There are also a couple of examples of caesura in ‘Now Let No Charitable Hope.’ For
instance, line two of the second stanza. It reads: “I am, being woman, hard beset.”
Caesura occurs when the poet inserts a pause into the middle of a line. This might be
indicated by the punctuation or by a break in the meter.
- Analysis (Stanza by Stanza)

Stanza One
Now let no charitable hope
Confuse my mind with images
Of eagle and of antelope:
I am in nature none of these.

In the first stanza of ‘Now Let No Charitable Hope,’ the speaker begins with the line that
later came to be used as the title. She reminds herself that she might experience
moments of hope that she could be as free as an “eagle” or “antelope,” but these should
not “confuse” her mind. In reality, she says, she is not an eagle, antelope, or any other
free creature able to traverse the world however they see fit. She belongs to a different
category, one that is explained and explored in the second stanza. The speaker reminds
herself that she is ‘in nature, none of these.”
Stanza Two
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 the second stanza of ‘Now Let No Charitable Hope,’ the speaker goes on to say that
rather than a liberated animal, she is a “human, born alone.” This statement seems to
confirm that she sees her life as lesser in some ways than that of a creature in nature.
She’s born alone into the world, without the companionship of others, and to add to this,
she’s a “woman” and ‘hard beset” by this fact. Her life is made more complicated and
more difficult by the fact that she’s a woman and has to fight for every freedom she
aspires to. Nothing comes easy to her, she’s suggesting.
The third and fourth lines contain an interesting metaphor that helps the reader
understand how difficult the speaker’s life is on a day-to-day basis. She describes the
process of acquiring “nourishment” as so difficult it’s like squeezing something out of a
stone. The “nourishment” can be interpreted as happiness, satisfaction, or pleasure. It’s
difficult for her to indulge in any of these things.

Stanza Three
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.

In the final four lines, the speaker adds that she’s moved through, like in “masks
outrageous and austere.” She’s worn the faces she’s been told to wear and acted in
every way that’s been demanded of her. This creates the image, backed up by the
second line that life has been a simple procession of moments. One comes after
another, each as “austere” as the one before.
The final two lines make the poem slightly more complicated. The speaker adds that
none of the years have “merited” her fear nor have any “quite escaped my smile.” The
last line could be interpreted as though the speaker has found some joy in her life or
that she’s put on a simile throughout the years of her life, even if she was finding no joy
or pleasure in her days.