AGIMUR FATIS.
We are as wrecks upon a stormy sea,The winds and currents bear us where they will;Or dry leaves, that before the tempest flee,Borne on to good or unevaded ill.Ere weeping through the gates of life we came,Our lots were fixed, each act and thought decreed:In vain we strive—we stem the tide in vain;—Alike the idiot’s brain, the sage’s rede.Powerless before the unimpassioned DoomThe form of beauty and the lofty mind;The shuttle speeds athwart the fatal loom—Our lots are woven as the threads unwind.Sorrow and gladness intertwined are ours,Or woe unmixed, or pleasure undefiled;Exult not, though thy path be strewn with flowers,Oft mid their bloom the venomed asp lies coiled.On the dark billows of the sea of fateFull many a glorious shape floats wrecked and pale;While meaner beings, haughty and elate,A festal throng before the zephyrs sail.And star-like eyes and lovely cheeks are dewedWith ceaseless tears, an unextinguished rain;And youth and strength, and kingly fortitudeWith dotard weakness struggle oft in vain.
We are as wrecks upon a stormy sea,The winds and currents bear us where they will;Or dry leaves, that before the tempest flee,Borne on to good or unevaded ill.Ere weeping through the gates of life we came,Our lots were fixed, each act and thought decreed:In vain we strive—we stem the tide in vain;—Alike the idiot’s brain, the sage’s rede.Powerless before the unimpassioned DoomThe form of beauty and the lofty mind;The shuttle speeds athwart the fatal loom—Our lots are woven as the threads unwind.Sorrow and gladness intertwined are ours,Or woe unmixed, or pleasure undefiled;Exult not, though thy path be strewn with flowers,Oft mid their bloom the venomed asp lies coiled.On the dark billows of the sea of fateFull many a glorious shape floats wrecked and pale;While meaner beings, haughty and elate,A festal throng before the zephyrs sail.And star-like eyes and lovely cheeks are dewedWith ceaseless tears, an unextinguished rain;And youth and strength, and kingly fortitudeWith dotard weakness struggle oft in vain.
We are as wrecks upon a stormy sea,The winds and currents bear us where they will;Or dry leaves, that before the tempest flee,Borne on to good or unevaded ill.
We are as wrecks upon a stormy sea,
The winds and currents bear us where they will;
Or dry leaves, that before the tempest flee,
Borne on to good or unevaded ill.
Ere weeping through the gates of life we came,Our lots were fixed, each act and thought decreed:In vain we strive—we stem the tide in vain;—Alike the idiot’s brain, the sage’s rede.
Ere weeping through the gates of life we came,
Our lots were fixed, each act and thought decreed:
In vain we strive—we stem the tide in vain;—
Alike the idiot’s brain, the sage’s rede.
Powerless before the unimpassioned DoomThe form of beauty and the lofty mind;The shuttle speeds athwart the fatal loom—Our lots are woven as the threads unwind.
Powerless before the unimpassioned Doom
The form of beauty and the lofty mind;
The shuttle speeds athwart the fatal loom—
Our lots are woven as the threads unwind.
Sorrow and gladness intertwined are ours,Or woe unmixed, or pleasure undefiled;Exult not, though thy path be strewn with flowers,Oft mid their bloom the venomed asp lies coiled.
Sorrow and gladness intertwined are ours,
Or woe unmixed, or pleasure undefiled;
Exult not, though thy path be strewn with flowers,
Oft mid their bloom the venomed asp lies coiled.
On the dark billows of the sea of fateFull many a glorious shape floats wrecked and pale;While meaner beings, haughty and elate,A festal throng before the zephyrs sail.
On the dark billows of the sea of fate
Full many a glorious shape floats wrecked and pale;
While meaner beings, haughty and elate,
A festal throng before the zephyrs sail.
And star-like eyes and lovely cheeks are dewedWith ceaseless tears, an unextinguished rain;And youth and strength, and kingly fortitudeWith dotard weakness struggle oft in vain.
And star-like eyes and lovely cheeks are dewed
With ceaseless tears, an unextinguished rain;
And youth and strength, and kingly fortitude
With dotard weakness struggle oft in vain.