---

Matthew Arnold - Human Life
Work rating: Low

What mortal, when he saw,
Life`s voyage done, his heavenly Friend,
Could ever yet dare tell him fearlessly:
"I have kept uninfringed my nature`s law ; 
The inly-written chart  thou gavest me, 
To guide me, I have steer`d by to the end"?

Ah! let us make no claim,
On life`s incognisable  sea, 
To too exact a steering of our way;
Let us not fret and fear to miss our aim, 
If some fair coast have lured us to make stay,
Or some friend hail`d us to keep company.

Ay! we would each fain drive
At random, and not steer by rule.
Weakness! and worse, weakness bestow`d in vain 
Winds from our side the unsuiting consort rive,
We rush by coasts where we had lief remain;
Man cannot, though he would, live chance`s fool.

No! as the foaming swath
Of torn-up water, on the main, 
Falls heavily away with long-drawn roar
On either side the black deep-furrow`d path
Cut by an onward-labouring vessel`s prore,  
And never touches the ship-side again;

Even so we leave behind, 
As, charter`d by some unknown Powers
We stem  across the sea of life by night 
The joys which were not for our use design`d;--
The friends to whom we had no natural right,
The homes that were not destined to be ours.
Source
The script ran 0.01 seconds.