Explore "Wishes for a Little Girl" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
What would I ask the kindly fates to give / To crown her life, if I could have my way? / My strongest wishes would be negative, / If they would but obey.
Give her not greatness. For great souls must stand / Alone and lonely in this little world: / Cleft rocks that show the great Creator's hand, / Thither by earthquakes hurled.
Give her not genius. Spare her the cruel pain / Of finding her whole life a prey for daws; / Of hearing with quickened sense and burning brain / The world's sneer-tinged applause.
Give her not perfect beauty's gifts. For then / Her truthful mirror would infuse her mind / With love for self, and for the praise of men, / That lowers woman-kind.
But make her fair and comely to the sight, / Give her more heart than brain, more love than pride. / Let her be tender-thoughted, cheerful, bright, / Some strong man's star and guide.
Not vainly questioning why she was sent / Into this restless world of toil and strife, / Let her go bravely on her way, content / To make the best of life.