Despite and Still (1968), a set of five songs by Samuel Barber, was written during a very difficult period in the composer's life. His most recent composition, the opera Antony and Cleopatra (1966) had been widely criticized and was considered a failure. From this turning point on, Barber did not compose as often and wrote only music that fit his natural inclinations. The piece was completed in June 1968 and was dedicated to Leontyne Price, the soprano who had earlier premiered Barber's Hermit Songs (1953). The soloist also premiered Despite and Still on April 27, 1969, in New York, accompanied by pianist David Garvey.

The texts chosen for the five songs, although criticized for being unrelated to each other, are similar in their discussion of themes such as loneliness, lost love, and reclusion—themes to which Barber was drawn in the last years of his life and career. Certain passages take up religious themes, in which Barber also became increasingly interested near the end of his life. Harmonically, the piece can be described as having blurred tonality. At many points, multiple chords are played at once and the music rapidly modulates.

The first song of the cycle is based on a poem by Robert Graves. The poem is called A Last Poem, but the song is titled "A Last Song." The text can be interpreted as expressing the feelings of an artist being pushed to continually produce creative work even into old age. The music is dramatic until the end section, in which the speaker wishes for the "whisper" of a muse. The second song, "My Lizard," based on a poem by Theodore Roethke, is a lightly textured song in which the speaker cynically hopes that his young love lives long and happily after he is gone. The third song, based on another poem by Graves, "In the Wilderness," has for its subject the suffering of Jesus. The fourth song is not based on a poem but rahter on a paragraph from James Joyce's Ulysses, and is titled "Solitary Hotel." The final song is based on another Graves poem that lends its name to the title of the piece, "Despite and Still." This song is a story of two lovers who cannot be together because of their personal differences.

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