portion of its lost heart

Though she may never compose an epic or a tragic drama in five acts, the woman poet has a singular role and precarious destiny. And, at the moment, in a time lacking in truth and certainty and filled with anguish and despair, no woman should be shamefaced in attempting to give back to the world, through her work, a portion of its lost heart.

―Louise Bogan "The Heart and the Lyre," essay (1947).