Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PROCRUSTES'S BED, by BEATRICE HANSCOM


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PROCRUSTES'S BED, by                    
First Line: A grecian myth tells of a giant grim
Last Line: Fitted to fate by force of circumstance.
Subject(s): Fate; Mythology; Procrastination; Destiny


A GRECIAN myth tells of a giant grim
Who treated all alike who came to him

Beseeching shelter. Them the giant led
And bade repose upon an iron bed.

But when the weary traveller was at rest,
Fast to the bed he bound the helpless guest;

And as he woke alarmed, Procrustes said,
His rule was fixed — each guest must fit the bed.

Off came his legs if he perchance were tall,
Racked must he be had nature made him small.

So, strained or maimed by this most ghastly jest,
To fit his bed, was shaped each hapless guest.

And so, methinks, by fickle fortune led,
We must conform to Destiny's iron bed.

Content is he whose limits are so near
That he will never dream his way not clear.

Accursed is he with stunted life and maimed,
A slave by stern misfortune foully claimed.

And what of him who racked 'neath duty's strain
Grows into greater stature through his pain?

So are we all by some grim sport of chance
Fitted to fate by force of circumstance.





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