Complete Poetical Works

FATE

     "The sky is clouded, the rocks are bare,
     The spray of the tempest is white in air;
     The winds are out with the waves at play,
     And I shall not tempt the sea to-day.

     "The trail is narrow, the wood is dim,
     The panther clings to the arching limb;
     And the lion's whelps are abroad at play,
     And I shall not join in the chase to-day."

     But the ship sailed safely over the sea,
     And the hunters came from the chase in glee;
     And the town that was builded upon a rock
     Was swallowed up in the earthquake shock.