This page has been validated.
THE PAGEANT OF THE HOURS
I
For ever do the Hours unfold
The tale in Fate's great book enrolled,
The tale for ever to be told,
For ever new, yet ever old:
They march for ever on their way
Nor prayer nor threat their course can stay;
Impassive ministers of Fate,
Unmoved alike by Love or Hate:
Yet are they friends, not foes, to man,
Could he their course with calmness scan.
For ever do the Hours unfold
The tale in Fate's great book enrolled,
The tale for ever to be told,
For ever new, yet ever old:
They march for ever on their way
Nor prayer nor threat their course can stay;
Impassive ministers of Fate,
Unmoved alike by Love or Hate:
Yet are they friends, not foes, to man,
Could he their course with calmness scan.
II
They bring us Life—ill-omened gift!
And set us in the world adrift
To struggle with it as we may,
To triumph or become its prey:
Indifferent on their path they go,
Regardless of our joy or woe,
Unenvious of our happiness,
And pitiless to our distress;
They furnish forth for us the stage,
But care not how we rant or rage.
They bring us Life—ill-omened gift!
And set us in the world adrift
To struggle with it as we may,
To triumph or become its prey:
Indifferent on their path they go,
Regardless of our joy or woe,
Unenvious of our happiness,
And pitiless to our distress;
They furnish forth for us the stage,
But care not how we rant or rage.
1
a
