Explore "The Fates Laugh" by Gilbert Parker on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I did not will this thing. I set my face / Towards duty and my art; I was alone.
How knew I thou shouldst roll away the stone / From hopes long buried, by thy tender grace?
What does it matter that we make resolve?
The Fates laugh at us as they sit and spin; / We cannot tell what Good is, or what Sin, / Or why old faiths in mist of pain dissolve.
We only can stand watchful in the way, / Waiting with patient hands on shield and sword, / Ready to meet disaster in the fray,
Till Time has struck the letters of one word -- / Word of such high-born worth: triumphant Love, / Give me thy canopy where'er I rove.