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fate. - Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, vol. 9 (Poems) [1909]

Edition used:

The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, in 12 vols. Fireside Edition (Boston and New York, 1909).

Part of: The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, in 12 vols. (Fireside Edition).

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Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


fate.

    • Deep in the man sits fast his fate
    • To mould his fortunes mean or great;
    • Unknown to Cromwell as to me
    • Was Cromwell's measure or degree;
    • Unknown to him as to his horse,
    • If he than his groom be better or worse.
    • He works, plots, fights, in rude affairs,
    • With squires, lords, kings, his craft compares,
    • Till late he learned, through doubt and fear,
    • Broad England harbored not his peer:
    • Obeying Time, the last to own
    • The Genius from its cloudy throne.
    • For the prevision is allied
    • Unto the thing so signified;
    • Or say, the foresight that awaits
    • Is the same Genius that creates.