Poems of Optimism/The Winds of Fate

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

One ship drives east and another drives west,
With the self-same winds that blow,
   ’Tis the set of the sails
   And not the gales
That tell them the way to go.
Like the winds of the sea are the winds of fate,
As we voyage along through life,
   ’Tis the set of the soul
   That decides its goal
And not the calm or the strife.