Savitri: Book 1 Canto 2 Section 2 5:43 to

For this she had accepted mortal bredth

To wrestle with the Shadow she had come

And must confront the riddle of man’s birth

And life’s brief struggle in dumb Matter’s night.

Whether to bear with Ignorance and death

Or hew the ways of Immortality,

To win or lose the godlike game for man,

Was her soul’s issue thrown with Destiny’s dice.

But not to submit and suffer was she born;

To lead, to deliver was her glorious part.

Here was no fabric of terrestrial make

Fit for a day’s use by busy careless Powers.

An image fluttering on the screen of Fate,

Half-animated for a passing show,

Or a castaway on the ocean of Desire

Flung to the eddies in a ruthless sport

And tossed along the gulfs of Circumstance,

A creature born to bend beneath the yoke,

A chattel and a plaything of Time’s lords,

Or one more pawn who comes destined to be pushed

One slow move forward on a measureless board

In the chess-play of the earth-soul with Doom,—

Such is the human figure drawn by Time.