Living
Chance Will Not Do the Work, Chance Sends the Breeze
From Songs from the Waverley Novels (Poetical Works, Oxford 1904)
Living
CHANCE will not do the work, Chance sends the breeze ;
But if the pilot slumber at the helm,
The very wind that wafts us towards the port
May dash us on the shelves. The steersman's part is vigilance,
Blow it or rough or smooth.
✦ ✦ ✦
Codex Note
From The Fortunes of Nigel (1822)
Cite this poem
MLA
Scott, Walter. “Chance Will Not Do the Work, Chance Sends the Breeze.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/scott/238/.
Chicago
Scott, Walter. “Chance Will Not Do the Work, Chance Sends the Breeze.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/scott/238/.
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