I am the very slave of circumstance / And impulse - borne away with every breath!

I am the very slave of circumstance And impulse--borne away with every breath.

Men are the sport of circumstances, when The circumstances seem the sport of men.

And circumstance, that unspiritual god, And miscreator, makes and helps along Our coming evils, with a critch-like rod, Whose touch turns hope to dust--the dust we all have trod.

And grasps the skirts of happy chance, And breasts the blows of circumstance.

So runs the round of life from hour to hour.