<h2><SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_76" title="76"> </SPAN>FATE</h2>
<div class="poetry">
<div class="stanza">
<div class="line"><span class="small-caps">I know</span> not how I know,</div>
<div class="line indent8">And yet I know.</div>
<div class="line">I do not plan to go,</div>
<div class="line indent8">And yet I go.</div>
<div class="line">There is some dim force propelling,</div>
<div class="line">Gently guiding and compelling,</div>
<div class="line">And a faint voice ever telling</div>
<div class="line indent8">“This is so.”</div>
</div>
<div class="stanza">
<div class="line">The path is rough and black—</div>
<div class="line indent8">Dark as night—</div>
<div class="line">And there lies a fairer track</div>
<div class="line indent8">In the light.</div>
<div class="line">Yet I may not shirk or shrink,</div>
<div class="line">For I feel the hands that link</div>
<div class="line">As they guide me on the brink</div>
<div class="line indent8">Of the Height.</div>
</div>
<div class="stanza">
<SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_77" title="77"> </SPAN>
<div class="line indent2">Bigots blame me in their wrath.</div>
<div class="line indent8">Let them blame!</div>
<div class="line indent2">Praise or blame, the fated path</div>
<div class="line indent8">Is the same.</div>
<div class="line">If I droop upon my mission,</div>
<div class="line">There is still that saving vision,</div>
<div class="line">Iridescent and Elysian,</div>
<div class="line indent8">Tipped in flame.</div>
</div>
<div class="stanza">
<div class="line indent2">It was granted me to stand</div>
<div class="line indent8">By my dead.</div>
<div class="line indent2">I have felt the vanished hand</div>
<div class="line indent8">On my head,</div>
<div class="line">On my brow the vanished lips,</div>
<div class="line">And I know that Death's eclipse</div>
<div class="line">Is a floating veil that slips,</div>
<div class="line indent8">Or is shed.</div>
</div>
<div class="stanza">
<div class="line">When I heard thy well-known voice,</div>
<div class="line indent8">Son of mine,</div>
<SPAN class="pagenum" name="Page_78" title="78"> </SPAN>
<div class="line">Should I silently rejoice,</div>
<div class="line indent8">Or incline</div>
<div class="line">To strike harder as a fighter,</div>
<div class="line">That the heavy might be lighter,</div>
<div class="line">And the gloomy might be brighter</div>
<div class="line indent8">At the sign?</div>
</div>
<div class="stanza">
<div class="line">Great Guide, I ask you still,</div>
<div class="line indent8">“Wherefore I?”</div>
<div class="line">But if it be thy will</div>
<div class="line indent8">That I try,</div>
<div class="line">Trace my pathway among men,</div>
<div class="line">Show me how to strike, and when,</div>
<div class="line">Take me to the fight—and then,</div>
<div class="line indent8">Oh, be nigh!</div>
</div></div>
<p class="center" style="margin-top: 4em; font-style: italic;">Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury, England.</p>
<p class="page-break center" style="font-style: italic; text-decoration: underline;">BY ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE</p>
<p class="book">SONGS OF ACTION</p>
<p class="center">SEVENTH IMPRESSION.</p>
<div class="hanging-indent">
<p><cite>Punch.</cite>—“Dr. Conan Doyle has well named his verse
‘Songs of Action.’ It pulsates with life and movement,
whether the scenes be laid on sea or land, on
ship or horseback.”</p>
<p><cite>The Daily Telegraph.</cite>—“There is spirit and animation,
the rush and glow of young blood about his poems—always
a pulsating sense of life.”</p>
<p><cite>The Yorkshire Post.</cite>—“Dr. Conan Doyle writes a good
song and a good ballad. He has the requisite amount
of pathos, and his humour is spontaneous.”</p>
</div>
<p class="book">SONGS OF THE ROAD</p>
<div class="hanging-indent">
<p><cite>The Morning Post.</cite>—“A troop of rollicking tales, of fervid
exhortations and straightforward arguments … sound
sentiments, hearty humour…. The creator of
Sherlock Holmes is able to construct vivid and pungent
verse.”</p>
<p><cite>The Spectator.</cite>—“He can tell a good story as well in verse
as in prose: and the fetters of rhyme in no way weaken
the merits of the swift tale … humour as well as
spirit.”</p>
<p><cite>The Observer.</cite>—“The strong vitality of the author pervades
his poetry. It is a tonic to meet his frank optimism.”</p>
</div>
<p class="center" style="margin-top: 2em;">JOHN MURRAY, Albemarle Street, London, W.1</p>
<p class="page-break book">RECENT POETRY</p>
<table id="recent-poetry">
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="center">By Rear-Admiral <span class="small-caps">Ronald A. Hopwood</span>, C.B.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">THE NEW NAVY, and other Poems</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>THE SECRET OF THE SHIPS</td>
<td class="right">3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> net</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>THE OLD WAY, and other Poems</td>
<td class="right">3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> net</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="right"><i>4th Impression</i></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="section">THE POETS IN PICARDY</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="indent">By E. de <span class="small-caps">Stein</span>. 2nd Impression.</td>
<td class="right">3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> net</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">PSYCHOLOGIES</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="indent">By <span class="small-caps">Sir Ronald Ross, K.C.B.</span></td>
<td class="right">2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> net</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">THE MAN WHO SAW, and other Poems</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="indent">By <span class="small-caps">Sir William Watson</span>.</td>
<td class="right">3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> net</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">POEMS NEW AND OLD</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="indent">By <span class="small-caps">Sir Henry Newbolt</span>.</td>
<td class="right">7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> net</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="section center">By Lieut. <span class="small-caps">Joseph Lee</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="indent">With Illustrations by the Author.</td>
<td class="right">3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> net each</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>BALLADS OF BATTLE</td>
<td><i>4th Impression</i></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">WORK-A-DAY WARRIORS</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="section center">By <span class="small-caps">J. Griffyth Fairfax</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>MESOPOTAMIA</td>
<td class="right">3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> net</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>THE HORNS OF TAURUS</td>
<td class="right">3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> net</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>THE TEMPLE OF JANUS</td>
<td class="right">5<i>s.</i> net</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" class="section center">By <span class="small-caps">Ronald Campbell Macfie</span>, LL.D.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>ODES AND OTHER POEMS</td>
<td class="right">5<i>s.</i> net</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>WAR</td>
<td class="right">3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> net</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p class="center page-break-after" style="margin-top: 2em;">JOHN MURRAY, Albemarle Street, London, W.1</p>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />
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