An Ode To Fortune
Eugene Field 1850 (St. Louis) – 1895 (Chicago)
O Lady Fortune! 't is to thee I call,
Dwelling at Antium, thou hast power to crown
The veriest clod with riches and renown,
And change a triumph to a funeral
The tillers of the soil and they that vex the seas,
Confessing thee supreme, on bended knees
Invoke thee, all.
Of Dacian tribes, of roving Scythian bands,
Of cities, nations, lawless tyrants red
With guiltless blood, art thou the haunting dread;
Within thy path no human valor stands,
And, arbiter of empires, at thy frown
The sceptre, once supreme, slips surely down
From kingly hands.
Necessity precedes thee in thy way;
Hope fawns on thee, and Honor, too, is seen
Dancing attendance with obsequious mien;
But with what coward and abject dismay
The faithless crowd and treacherous wantons fly
When once their jars of luscious wine run dry,--
Such ingrates they!
Fortune, I call on thee to bless
Our king,--our Caesar girt for foreign wars!
Help him to heal these fratricidal scars
That speak degenerate shame and wickedness;
And forge anew our impious spears and swords,
Wherewith we may against barbarian hordes
Our Past redress!
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 57 sec read
- 110 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABBXCCA DEEDBBD FGGFHHF IXXXJJI |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,071 |
Words | 190 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 7, 7, 7, 7 |
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"An Ode To Fortune" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 24 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/12896/an-ode-to-fortune>.
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