FATE
Reading edition
I know not how I know, And yet I know. I do not plan to go, And yet I go. There is some dim force propelling, Gently guiding and compelling, And a faint voice ever telling “This is so.” The path is rough and black— Dark as night— And there lies a fairer track In the light. Yet I may not shirk or shrink, For I feel the hands that link As they guide me on the brink Of the Height. Bigots blame me in their wrath. Let them blame! Praise or blame, the fated path Is the same. If I droop upon my mission, There is still that saving vision, Iridescent and Elysian, Tipped in flame. It was granted me to stand By my dead. I have felt the vanished hand On my head, On my brow the vanished lips, And I know that Death's eclipse Is a floating veil that slips, Or is shed. When I heard thy well-known voice, Son of mine, Should I silently rejoice, Or incline To strike harder as a fighter, That the heavy might be lighter, And the gloomy might be brighter At the sign? Great Guide, I ask you still, “Wherefore I?” But if it be thy will That I try, Trace my pathway among men, Show me how to strike, and when, Take me to the fight—and then, Oh, be nigh!
Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury, England.
BY ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
SONGS OF ACTION
SEVENTH IMPRESSION.
Punch.—“Dr. Conan Doyle has well named his verse ‘Songs of Action.’ It pulsates with life and movement, whether the scenes be laid on sea or land, on ship or horseback.”
The Daily Telegraph.—“There is spirit and animation, the rush and glow of young blood about his poems—always a pulsating sense of life.”
The Yorkshire Post.—“Dr. Conan Doyle writes a good song and a good ballad. He has the requisite amount of pathos, and his humour is spontaneous.”
SONGS OF THE ROAD
The Morning Post.—“A troop of rollicking tales, of fervid exhortations and straightforward arguments … sound sentiments, hearty humour…. The creator of Sherlock Holmes is able to construct vivid and pungent verse.”
The Spectator.—“He can tell a good story as well in verse as in prose: and the fetters of rhyme in no way weaken the merits of the swift tale … humour as well as spirit.”
The Observer.—“The strong vitality of the author pervades his poetry. It is a tonic to meet his frank optimism.”
JOHN MURRAY, Albemarle Street, London, W.1
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JOHN MURRAY, Albemarle Street, London, W.1