Fools may pine, and sots may swill, <br />Cynics gibe, and prophets rail, <br />Moralists may scourge and drill, <br />Preachers prose, and fainthearts quail. <br />Let them whine, or threat, or wail! <br />Till the touch of Circumstance <br />Down to darkness sink the scale, <br />Fate’s a fiddler, Life’s a dance. <br /> <br />What if skies be wan and chill? <br />What if winds be harsh and stale? <br />Presently the east will thrill, <br />And the sad and shrunken sail <br />Bellying with a kindly gale, <br />Bear you sunwards, while your chance <br />Sends you back the hopeful hail: - <br />‘Fate’s a fiddler, Life’s a dance.’ <br /> <br />Idle shot or coming bill, <br />Hapless love or broken bail, <br />Gulp it (never chew your pill!) <br />And if Burgundy should fail, <br />Try the humbler pot of ail! <br />Over all is heaven’s expanse. <br />Gold’s to find among the shale, <br />Fate’s a fiddler, Life’s a dance.<br /><br />William Ernest Henley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/double-ballad-of-life-and-death/
