The Rocking-Horse Winner There was a woman who was beautiful, who started with all the advantages, yet she had no luck
She married for love, and the love turned to dust
She had bonny children, yet she felt they had been thrust upon her, and she could not love them
They looked at her coldly, as if they were finding fault with her
And hurriedly she felt she must cover up some fault in herself
Yet what it was that she must cover up she never knew
Nevertheless, when her children were present, she always felt the center of her heart go hard
This troubled her, and in her manner she was all the more gentle and anxious for her children, as if she loved them very much
Only she herself knew that at the center of her heart was a hard little place that could not feel love, no, not for anybody