| Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907. | | | Verse Musings on Nature, Faith, and Freedom (1889).
II. Freedom.
I. Fate and Man | | By John Owen (1836–1896) |
| | | MEANING well, men compass ill, | |
| Scheming ill, they good fulfil; | |
| Such is Fate’s ironic will, | |
| Such her metamorphic skill, | |
| From one substance to distil, | 5 |
| Balm to quicken—bane to kill. | |
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| Children-like, our laps we load | |
| With flowers culled upon life’s road; | |
| These we bear to Fate’s abode, | |
| Nothing witting, but her mode | 10 |
| To distil, from gifts bestowed, | |
| Drugs that solace or corrode. | |
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| Fate is sightless, Fate is free, | |
| Yet her limits knoweth she; | |
| Thus, though purblind mortals, we | 15 |
| All her methods cannot see, | |
| Yet we know supreme is He | |
| Who hath made Fate blind and free. | | | | |
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