[Page 72]

The Fatality.

1 Come all ye grand Predestinarians now,
2 Your Doctrine to the Height I will allow:
3 I who with utmost Force resist my Fate,
4 But am to Ills alone predestinate;
5 In vain I strive th' immutable Decree,
6 Has pass'd on my unlucky Destiny.
7 With Sighs and Tears I did at first begin,
8 To conquer Fate as others would their Sin;
9 Each Path I trod I went with Caution on,
10 But every Step doth lead to be undone:
11 And when a threatening Storm was in my View,
12 I from it (wisely as I thought) withdrew;
13 But whilst the approaching Ills with Fear I shun,
14 Into some other certain Harms I run;
15 So when some mighty Grief did press my Soul,
16 I would th' uneasy Tyranny controul;
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17 (Like a distracted Man that will not bear,
18 Those Fetters which Discretion makes him wear;
19 But frets and raves, and breaks the friendly Chain,
20 Which did from greater Injuries restrain;
21 He'll not be bar'd a dangerous Liberty,
22 Tho' he to Outrages and Mischief fly.)
23 Thus I from one Misfortune force my Way,
24 By Means that does to greater still betray;
25 One Sorrow seldom attends long on me,
26 I have a torturing Variety,
27 I change and change, yet still 'tis Misery.
28 A Hydra Fate my Ruin does pursue,
29 Cut off one ill, strait, there springs up a new,
30 And they'll arise ad infinitum too.
31 Ther's none the mystick Scrolls of Fate can read,
32 Nor shun the Ills by mighty Powers decreed,
33 Hood-wink'd by them, just as they guide we tread.
34 In vain we say we this or that will do,
35 It cannot be unless they'll have it so;
36 The only Way to ease our Discontents,
37 Is to conclude they must be such Events;
38 Such as the mighty hidden source of Things,
39 Bubbles from it's inevitable Springs.

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Title (in Source Edition): The Fatality.
Author: Sarah Fyge Egerton
Themes: disaster
Genres: heroic couplet

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Egerton, Sarah Fyge, 1668-1723. Poems on Several Occasions, Together with a Pastoral. By Mrs. S. F. [poems only] London: printed, and are to be sold by J. Nutt, near Stationers-Hall, 1703, pp. 72-73. [20],117,[3],15,[1]p.; 8⁰. (ESTC T125148) (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [280 e.4058].)

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