At the Crossroads
by Richard Hovey(1864-1900)
- YOU to the left and I to the right,
- For the ways of men must sever--
- And it well may be for a day and a night,
- And it well may be forever.
- But whether we meet or whether we part
- (For our ways are past our knowing),
- A pledge from the heart to its fellow heart
- On the ways we all are going!
- Here's luck!
- For we know not where we are going.
- Whether we win or whether we lose
- With the hands that life is dealing,
- It is not we nor the ways we choose
- But the fall of the cards that's sealing.
- There's a fate in love and a fate in flight,
- And the best of us all go under--
- And whether we're wrong or whether we're right,
- We win, sometimes, to our wonder.
- Here's luck!
- That we may not yet go under!
- With a steady swing and an open brow
- We have tramped the ways together,
- But we're clasping hands at the crossroads now
- In the Fiend's own night for weather;
- And whether we bleed or whether we smile
- In the leagues that lie before us
- The ways of life are many a mile
- And the dark of Fate is o'er us.
- Here's luck!
- And a cheer for the dark before us!
- You to the left and I to the right,
- For the ways of men must sever,
- And it well may be for a day and a night,
- And it well may be forever!
- But whether we live or whether we die
- (For the end is past our knowing),
- Here's two frank hearts and the open sky,
- Be a fair or an ill wind blowing!
- Here's luck!
- In the teeth of all winds blowing.
- For the ways of men must sever--