‘Tis the set of the sail

Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1916

But every mind there openeth,

A way and a way away,

A high soul climbs the high way,

And the low soul gropes the low,

And in between on the misty flats, the rest drift to and fro.

But to every man there openeth,

A high way and a low

And Every mind decideth,

The way his soul shall go

One ship sails east,

And another west,

By the self-same winds that blow,

‘Tis the set of sails

And not the gales,

That tells the way we go.

Like the winds of the sea

Are the waves of time,

As we journey along through life,

‘tis the set of soul,

That determines the goal,

And not the calm or the strife.