---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 1
number: 7
published: 1898-05
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: "Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations, \"Opportunity, a Poem,\" *Improvement Era* 1, no. 7 (May 1898): 482."
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera17unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera17unse
start_page: 482
end_page: 482
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1898-05)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera17unse
  publication_year: 1898
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1898, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Opportunity, a Poem

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OPPORTUNITY.

            Monarch of every human being, I.
                Destiny shapes itself beneath my hand.
            I   rule ambitions lofty as the sky;
                I pave the way for crime's debasing brand.
                I'm king of battles, and I'm god of love
                I govern all below and all above.

            And once I come to every one of ye
              That hour your hope is lost or fortune's made.
            Act bravely, promptly, for the way is free;
                And woe to him who hesitates, afraid!
                I   hold in one hand, honor, love, and place;
              And in the other want, hate, and disgrace;
            So, when I come, then may your eyes see plain,
            For slighted once, I never come again.
                                           John D. Underwood.