'Tis The Set of the Sail
Ella Wheeler Wilcox, 1916
But to every mind there openeth,
A way, and a way, and away.
A high soul climbs the highway,
And the low soul groupes low,
And in between on the misty flats,
The rest drift to and fro.
But to every man there a openeth,
A high way and a low,
And every mind decideth,
The way this soul shall go.
One ship sails East,
And another West,
By the self-shame winds that blow,
'Tis the set of the sails
Anf not the gales,
That tells the way we go,
Like the winds of the sea
Are the waves of time
As we journey along through life,
'Tis the set of the soul, That determines the goal,
And not the calm of the strife.