Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

YOUNG FLOTSAM; TO H.H. by AUSTIN PHILIPS

First Line: WE ARE CAUGHT LIKE CHAFF IN THE BREEZE, AND BLOWN
Last Line: BUT WE ARE THE MEN THEY MADE US!
Subject(s): FRIENDSHIP;
WE are caught like chaff in the breeze, and blown
Where the winds of Heaven would drive us,
To catch the trick and to take the tone
Of the towns in which they hive us;
And some go up, and some go down,
Some pray, and some make revel,
Some swim to shore, and others drown ...
But each of us finds his level.

And whether in gold or whether in drink,
Or whether in both we're rolling,
And whether we win success or sink
Is out of our own controlling:
The ship of our life may round the cape,
Or out on the rocks go grounding,
It's only a chance, and there's no escape
From ourselves and our own surrounding.

For we are a part of the men we meet
In the Net of the Fates that caught us,
And all that the men leave incomplete
The women have shewn and taught us:
Oh, some of our foes have served us well,
And most of our friends have failed us,
The women have given us Heaven and Hell ...
But we are the men they made us!



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