Fortuna
Fortuna
Original Text
Thomas Carlyle, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, I (London: Chapman and Hall, 1872): 293.
1The wind blows east, the wind blows west,
2And the frost falls and the rain:
3A weary heart went thankful to rest,
4And must rise to toil again, 'gain,
5And must rise to toil again.
6The wind blows east, the wind blows west,
7And there comes good luck and bad;
8The thriftiest man is the cheerfulest;
9'Tis a thriftless thing to be sad, sad,
10'Tis a thriftless thing to be sad.
11The wind blows east, the wind blows west;
12Ye shall know a tree by its fruit:
13This world, they say, is worst to the best; --
14But a dastard has evil to boot, boot,
15But a dastard has evil to boot.
16The wind blows east, the wind blows west;
17What skills it to mourn or to talk?
18A journey I have, and far ere I rest;
19I must bundle my wallets and walk, walk,
20I must bundle my wallets and walk.
21The wind does blow as it lists alway;
22Canst thou change this world to thy mind?
23The world will wander its own wise way;
24I also will wander mine, mine,
25I also will wander mine.
Publication Start Year
1840
Publication Notes
Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, 2nd edn., I (1840). See Rodger L. Tarr, Thomas Carlyle: A Descriptive Bibliography (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1989): A 10.2.I.a.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 2001.
Rhyme