THE WINDS OF FATE

 

[This poem was written by Mrs. Wilcox on the steamer, Richard Peck, between New Haven and New York, following her husband’s observation that one ship west and the other east in the same wind.]

 

One ship drives east and the another drives west

With the selfsame winds that blow,

‘Tis the set of the sails

And not the gales

Which tells us the way to go.

 

Like the winds of the sea are the winds of fate,

As we voyage along through life:

“Tis the set of a soul

That decides its goal,

And not the calm of the strife.  

 

Ella Wheeler Wilcox