FATE. BY SUSAN MARR SPALDING.
Reading edition
Susan Marr Spalding was born in Bath, Me., and educated in a seminary there. From early girlhood she wrote verse, her sonnets being graceful and tender. At the death of her parents she lived with her uncle, a clergyman, in New York. She married Mr. Spalding, a literary man, and made her home in Philadelphia.
Two shall be born, the whole wide world apart, And speak in different tongues, and have no thought Each of the other’s being; and have no heed; And these, o’er unknown seas to unknown lands Shall cross, escaping wreck; defying death; And, all unconsciously, shape every act to this one end That, one day, out of darkness, they shall meet And read life’s meaning in each other’s eyes.
And two shall walk some narrow way of life So nearly side by side that, should one turn Ever so little space to right or left, They needs must stand acknowledged face to face. And yet, with wistful eyes that never meet. With groping hands that never clasp; and lips Calling in vain to ears that never hear; They seek each other all their weary days And die unsatisfied—and that is fate.