{
 "id": "robert-w-service/quatrains",
 "title": "Quatrains",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Robert W. Service",
 "poet_slug": "robert-w-service",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Songs of a Sourdough",
 "book_slug": "songs-of-a-sourdough",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 18,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1907,
  "venue": "Songs of a Sourdough (1907)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/songsofsourdoug00serv"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/robert-w-service_songs-of-a-sourdough",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25546",
   "https://archive.org/details/songsofsourdoug00serv"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 51,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "One said: Thy life is thine to make or mar,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To flicker feebly, or to soar, a star;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It lies with thee⁠—the choice is thine, is thine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To hit the ties or drive thy auto-car.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I answer Her: The choice is mine⁠—ah, no!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We all were made or marred long, long ago.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The parts are written: hear the super wail:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Who is stage-managing this cosmic show?”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Blind fools of fate, and slaves of circumstance,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Life is a fiddler, and we all must dance.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From gloom where mocks that will-o’-wisp, Freewill,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I heard a voice cry: “Say, give us a chance.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Chance! Oh, there is no chance. The scene is set.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Up with the curtain! Man, the marionette,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Resumes his part. The gods will work the wires.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They’ve got it all down fine, you bet, you bet!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It’s all decreed: the mighty earthquake crash;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The countless constellations’ wheel and flash;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The rise and fall of empires, war’s red tide,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The composition of your dinner hash.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "There’s no haphazard in this world of ours:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cause and effect are grim, relentless powers.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They rule the world. (A king was shot last night.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Last night I held the joker and both bowers.)",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "From out the mesh of fate our heads we thrust.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We can’t do what we would, but what we must.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Heredity has got us in a cinch.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(Consoling thought, when you’ve been on a “bust.”)",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Hark to the song where spheral voices blend:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“There’s no beginning, never will be end.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It makes us nutty; hang the astral chimes!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The table’s spread; come, let us dine, my friend.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}