APAG--"Heart of Stone"

A traditional element of musical theatre is the "I want" song, where the protagonist expresses the internal longing that will propel them through the action of the show. "As Pure As Gold" will have a slightly different take on this standard: "Heart of Gold" is an "anti-I-want" song of sorts, where Eleanora explains why she is so determined to never fall in love......
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Setup: Eleanora is reading through her mother's stories and letters in the chest she left behind and comes across the following love letter from Eleanora's late mother to her father. The letter is read/sung in a voice-over kind of style by the character of Mother/Storyteller who helps to narrate the whole show....
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Mother/Eleanora:
"My love for you is like the forrest round the tree.
My love for you is like the serpent in the sea.
My love for you is like the castle of a king.
For you, my love, I would do anything, anything.
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I love you like the mountain loves the sky.
I love you like a dove should love to fly.
I'll love you till the rivers in my body all run dry,
I'll love you till the minute--no, the moment--that I die."
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Eleanora:
All like this, so many more,
remnants of a sorry a past,
harder than the stories now to read.
How she wasted time on love,
life she wasted dreaming of
a happy ending now she'll never need.
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(Sarcastically, reading the letter)
I love you, so I'll throw my life away.
I'll give everything I have to give, one day
in giving everything, the price I'll have to pay is just my life.
I'll be your ever-loving wife.
But before the second chapter of our life together's done,
my life will end as I try to give you a son.
Never mind the daughter who now must go forth alone.
Robbed, in fact, by love of love that she will never--she has never known...
No it's not so very different from your stories,
mother...
it's not so very different from your stories...
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Mother told me all about
a house built out of hay
and how the wolf could easily
just blow that house away.
They built again with sticks and twigs
and tied the roof with twine:
it suffered no less sad a fate
a second tragic time.
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There is one thing you can use
to build what villians can't abuse,
what wolves and lovers cannot blow apart.
So screw your courage tightly on
until the wolves and pigs have gone
and find a strength that cuts you to the heart.
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Mother, I have made a promise and I'll keep my vow:
I'll never let the love that killed you touch me now...
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And so I build my heart of stone
and vow that from now on, I'll face my stars alone.
Fairy tales are make-believe
but broken hearts are real.
I promise that you'll never cry
if you never try to feel,
so steel your mind and find
a star to call your own
and build a steadfast heart of stone.
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Nothing ever hurts you,
tears will never fall,
stalwart as a fortress
or a mighty castle wall.
All my mother's stories
may have taught me how to dream,
but the way her story ended
taught me stories aren't as lovely as they seem.
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And so I build my heart of stone
and vow that from now on I'll face my stars alone.
Fairy tales are make believe,
but broken hearts are real.
I promise that you'll never cry
if you never try to feel
so steel your mind and find
a star to call your own and build a steadfast heart of stone.
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(At this point, the chorus is repeated by Eleanora, while Mother sings the opening "My love for you..." verse in countermelody.)