The Poetry Corner

What Is To Come We Know Not

By William Ernest Henley

What is to come we know not.But we know That what has been was good, was good to show, Better to hide, and best of all to bear. We are the masters of the days that were: We have lived, we have loved, we have suffered . . . even so. Shall we not take the ebb who had the flow? Life was our friend.Now, if it be our foe Dear, though it spoil and break us! need we care What is to come? Let the great winds their worst and wildest blow, Or the gold weather round us mellow slow: We have fulfilled ourselves, and we can dare And we can conquer, though we may not share In the rich quiet of the afterglow What is to come.