Circumstance

Circumstance

Percy Bysshe Shelley

FROM THE GREEK.
A man who was about to hang himself,
Finding a purse, then threw away his rope;
The owner, coming to reclaim his pelf,
The halter found; and used it. So is Hope
Changed for Despair--one laid upon the shelf,
We take the other. Under Heaven's high cope
Fortune is God--all you endure and do
Depends on circumstance as much as you.

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Public domain text via the PoetryDB open archive.

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