English Poetry I: From Chaucer to Gray.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 284. To Fortune |
| | | James Thomson (1700–1748) |
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| FOR ever, Fortune, wilt thou prove | |
| An unrelenting foe to Love, | |
| And when we meet a mutual heart | |
| Come in between, and bid us part? | |
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| Bid us sigh on from day to day, | 5 |
| And wish and wish the soul away; | |
| Till youth and genial years are flown, | |
| And all the life of life is gone? | |
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| But busy, busy, still art thou, | |
| To bind the loveless, joyless vow, | 10 |
| The heart from pleasure to delude, | |
| To join the gentle to the rude. | |
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| For once, O Fortune, hear my prayer, | |
| And I absolve thy future care; | |
| All other blessings I resign, | 15 |
| Make but the dear Amanda mine. | |
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