Then bring me here a breastplate,

And a helm before ye fly,

And I will gird my woman’s form,

And on the ramparts die!

—FELICIA HEMANS, from the poem “Marguerite of France”

I want something to do.

—LOUISA MAY ALCOTT, upon announcing her intention to serve as a nurse at the Washington Hospital during the Civil War. To be filed under, “Be careful what you wish for.”