Stoop to thy great appointment, and obey

That will which nought avails me to gainsay.

For whilst in sorrow's maze I wander on,

I do but follow life's vocation.

Sure we were made to grieve: at our first birth,

With cries we took possession of the earth;

And though the lucky man reputed be

Fortune's adopted son, yet only he

Is Nature's true-born child, who sums his years

30(Like me) with no arithmetic but tears.