Life! Austere arbiter of each man's fate, <br />By whom he learns that Nature's steadfast laws <br />Are as decrees immutable; O pause <br />Your even forward march! Not yet too late <br />Teach me the needed lesson, when to wait <br />Inactive as a ship when no wind draws <br />To stretch the loosened cordage. One implores <br />Thy clemency, whose wilfulness innate <br />Has gone uncurbed and roughshod while the years <br />Have lengthened into decades; now distressed <br />He knows no rule by which to move or stay, <br />And teased with restlessness and desperate fears <br />He dares not watch in silence thy wise way <br />Bringing about results none could have guessed.<br /><br />Amy Lowell<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/before-dawn/
