What Is To Come

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.

--William Ernest Henley