So Go It Alone!

The Game of Life

There's a game much in fashion- I think its called Euchre

(Though I never have played it, for pleasure or lucre),

In which, when the cards are in certain conditions,

The players appear to have changed their positions,

And one of them cries, in a confident tone,

"I think I may venture to go it alone!"

While watching the game, 'tis a whim of the bard's

A moral to draw from that skirmish of cards,

And to fancy he finds in the trivial strife

Some excellent hints for the battle of Life,

Where-whether the prize be a ribbon or throne-

The winner is he who can go it alone!

Portrait of Galileo Galilei

Justus Sustermans

(1636)

When great Galileo proclaimed that the world

In a regular orbit was ceaselessly whirled,

And got-not a convert-for all of his pains,

But only derision and prison and chains,

"It moves, for all that!" was his answering tone,

For he knew, like the Earth, he could go it alone!

When Kepler, with intellect piercing afar,

Discovered the laws of each planet and star,

And doctors, who ought to have lauded his name,

Derided his learning, and blackened his fame,

"I can wait!" he replied, "till the truth you shall own";

For he felt in his heart he could go it alone!

Alas! for the player who idly depends,

In the struggle for life, upon kindred or friends;

Whatever the value of blessings like these,

They can never atone for inglorious ease,

Nor comfort the coward who finds, with a groan,

That his crutches have left him to go it alone!

There's something, no doubt, in the hand you may hold;

Health, family, culture, wit, beauty, and gold

The fortunate owner may fairly regard

As, each in its way, a most excellent card;

Yet the game may be lost, with all these your own,

Unless you've the courage to go it alone!

In battle or business, whatever the game,

In law or in love, it is ever the same;

In struggle for power, or the scramble for pelt,

Let this be your motto-Rely on yourself!

For, whether the prize be a ribbon or throne,

The victor is he who can go it alone!


"Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above
all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life."
 Proverbs 4:23

"The Game of Life"

John Godfrey Saxe

1816-1887