Necessity of Fate

IN vain, in vain it is, I find,
To strive against our Fate,
We may as well command the Wind,
Or th' Seas rude Waves to gentle manners bind,
Or to Eternity prescribe a date,
As frustrate ought that Fortune has design'd.
For when we think we're Politicians grown,
And live by methods of our own;
We then obsequiously obey
Her Dictates, and a blindfull Homage pay.

For were't not so, surely I cou'd not be
Still slave to Rhime, and lazy Poetry;
I who so oft have strove,
My freedom to regain;
And sometimes too, for my assistance took
Business, and sometimes too a Book;
Company, and sometimes Love:
All which proves vain,
For I can only •hake, but not cast off my Chain.

Ah cruel Fate! all this thou did'st sore-show,
Ev'n when I was a Child;
When in my Picture's hand
My Mother did command,
There shou'd be drawn a Lawrel-bough:
Lo then my Muse sat by and smil'd,
To hear how some the Sentence did oppose,
Saying an Apple, Bird, or Rose
Were objects which did more be•it
My childish years, and no less childish wit.

But my smiling Muse well knew that cons•ant Fate,
Her promise wou'd compleat;
For Fate at my initiation,
In the Muses Congregation,
As my Responsor promis'd then for me,
I shou'd forsake those three,
Soaring honours, and vain sweets of pleasure,
And vainer fruits of worldly treasure;
All for the Muses Melancholy Tree,
E're I knew ought of its great Mystery.
Ah gentle Fate, since thou wilt have it so,
Let thy kind hand exalt it to my brow.