Classic Poem

I do not ask things to go my way: I go my way myself:
I do not growl when the fates seem against me:
Why should I care as long as I am not against myself?
I hear you speak of your star and point to the skies in the night:
I, too, speak of my star, but my star is myself and shines in my own soul.
You say that everything is going the other way: you know it: you have seen it with your own eyes :
But how can everything be going the other way so long as I keep on going this way?
I would be afraid of the earth if I was at odds with myself:
But when I am on good terms with myself anything may go wrong, I will not go wrong:
I could not tell you how more than ever right I shall be then in the stern hour of my reverses.
I say to the winds: it's no use: blow however strong I stand however steady:
I say to the fires: burn however fiercely I fan an intenser counter flame:
I say to the mob: howl however loud I shall defy you in a louder voice:
I say to death: fall round me in whatever blackness I will make my sunbeam bright enough to break through you in glory
Do not tremble, O my brother — the world is all right if you are all right:
I am not cheating you with promises that cannot be kept —
I know my way: in the deepest confusion know my way best
I have not been alone with myself for so long for nothing,
I have not taken counsel of my own soul all these years for nothing:
There must have been a good reason for the preparations and the delays,
There must have been a good reason for the miseries I suffered
Now they are all gone and I am of all men the happiest man,
And now I see that happiness was the good reason and that the good reason eternally prevails
I do not think there is anything finer than to know how good your friends are to you —
Nothing finer except perhaps this, to know how good you may be to yourself:
I love the thought of my friends and I love the thought of myself,
But sometimes I have to say goodbye to my friends while I never have to say goodbye to myself :
And so it is with you, my brother, dear brother, just as it is with me:
I come and go but you to yourself forever faithfully remain
It may be very foolish to be so well satisfied with your own soul —
It may be like following a light leading you nowhere,
It may be like being in a boat going to sea without a rudder,
It may be like drawing a check on a bank that does not exist:
It may be all that is foolish and more than foolish:
But somehow I am ever so well satisfied with my own soul — ever so well:
Am never so well satisfied as when all things seem to be going against me,
Am never so well satisfied as when the last hope is forfeited and the light seems getting ready to go out
My friends all tell me I am a fool,
My pocket book tells me I am a fool,
The great fame I might have won tells me I am a fool,
And if that is the only way a man has of knowing himself the question would be settled
But I stand aside for all who say so much and say nothing myself,
And until I tell myself I am a fool I guess I must continue to travel my wise own way.
I know that things do not go the way of the man who does not go the way of things:
I do not ask things to go my way.