Thought for Thursday

Opportunity

John James Ingalls

Master of human destinies am I.

Fame, love, and fortune on my footsteps wait,

Cities and fields I walk; I penetrate

Deserts and seas remote, and, passing by

Hovel, and mart, and palace, soon or late

I knock unbidden, once at every gate!

If sleeping, wake--if feasting, rise before

I turn away. It is the hour of fate,

And they who follow me reach every state

Mortals desire, and conquer every foe

Save death; but those who doubt or hesitate,

condemned to failure, penury, and woe,

Seek me in vain and uselessly implore--

I answer not, and I return no more.

John James Ingalls
Born December 19, 1833
Died July 16, 1900

From One Hundred and One Famous Poems
 with a Prose Supplement
An Anthology Compiled by Roy J. Cook
Revised Edition, published in 1958
by The Reilly & Lee Co. Publishers, Chicago