For ever, Fortune, wilt thou prove <br />An unrelenting foe to love, <br />And when we meet a mutual heart <br />Come in between, and bid us part; <br /> <br />Bid us on from day to day, <br />And wish, and wish the soul away; <br />Till youth and genial years are flown, <br />And all the love of life is gone? <br /> <br />But busy, busy still art thou, <br />To bind the loveless, joyless vow. <br />The heart from pleasure to delude, <br />And join the gentle to the rude. <br /> <br />For pomp, and noise, and senseless show <br />To make us Nature's joys forego, <br />Beneath a gay dominion groan, <br />And put the golden fetter on! <br /> <br />For once, O Fortune, hear my prayer, <br />And I absolve thy future care; <br />All other blessings I resign, <br />Make but the dear Amanda mine.<br /><br />James Thomson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-fortune-2/
