Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 3. ON THE EVE OF DEPARTURE, by EDWARD CARPENTER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 3. ON THE EVE OF DEPARTURE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Always on the eve of departure
Last Line: Lo! This is thy fate, o blest one!
Subject(s): Fate; Destiny


ALWAYS on the eve of departure,
Thy goods all packed, thy testament signed and witnessed,
Touching with lightest touch all offerings life lays at thy feet:
This is thy fate, O blest one!

After the day's work leaving the papers behind on the desk, the tools on
the bench,
Letting the garden-line remain in the garden, leaving the newly sharpened
pick in the hardening trough,
Leaving the scissors and the sleeve-board on the floor where they fell, and
the waistcoat-lining unfinished on the machine,
Letting go all the plans and purposes of the day, forgetting about them as
if they had never been:
Lo! this is thy fate, O blest one!

The chains of office round your neck, yet to uncoil and lay them quietly
aside,
The cares of state that have held you since morning holding you no longer,
the axe-handle relaxing its grasp on you;
Out of the old ever passing, free as air,
For the acceptance of all, and the praise and blame of men, alike without
prejudice:
Lo! this is thy fate, O blest one!





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