Lines [“The Death of Men Is Not the Death”]
The death of men is not the death
Of rights that urged them to the fray;
For men may yield
On battle-field
A noble life with stainless shield,
And swords may rust
Above their dust,
But still, and still
The touch and thrill
Of freedom’s vivifying breath
Will nerve a heart and rouse a will
In some hour, in the days to be,
To win back triumphs from defeat;
And those who blame us then will greet
Right’s glorious eternity.
For right lives in a thousand things;
Its cradle is its martyr’s grave,
Wherein it rests awhile until
The life that heroisms gave
Will rise again, at God’s own will,
And right the wrong,
Which long and long
Did reign above the true and just;
And thro’ the songs the poet sings,
Right’s vivifying spirit rings;
Each simple rhyme
Keeps step and time
With those who marched away and fell,
And all his lines
Are humble shrines
Where love of right will love to dwell.