Page:The poems of Richard Watson Gilder, Gilder, 1908.djvu/365

Rh When next the occasion calls. I shall pursue

The path that grim experience has taught."

This was his solace, this his saving thought.

Then came a sudden knocking at the door.

He rose—and did what he had done before:

He looked into the dark, he flinched, he quailed;

The occasion came, and once again he failed.

Thus wrote a man who had seen much of men:

What man hath done, that will he do again."

Yet are there souls who, having clinched with fate,

Have learned to live, ere it was all too late.

Be it thy hope, tho' seven times a fool,

To get some lessons in life's fearful school.

"HE PONDERED WELL"