No hooded band of fates did stand your
heart's ambitions to gainsay,
No flaming brand in evil hand was ever
thrust across your way,
Only the things all men must meet, the
common attributes of men,
That men may flinch to see or, seeing, deny,
but avoid them no man may.
Fall the dice, not once or twice but always, to
make the self-same sum;
Chance what may, a life's a life and to a
single goal must come;
Though a man search far and wide, never
is hunger satisfied;
Nature brings her natural fetters, man is
meshed and the wise are dumb.
O vain all art to assuage a heart with accents
of a mortal tongue,
All earthly words are incomplete and only
sweet are the songs unsung,
Never yet was cause for regret, yet regret
must afflict us all,
Better it were to grasp the world 'thwart
which this world is a curtain flung.