Impressions: A Book of Verse/Failure

by Lilla Cabot Perry

 

FAILURE

EACH conqueror hath his singer, none have they,
The unrecorded multitude! and yet
Why should we the great struggling mass forget
Whose dying bodies pave the victor's way?—
Are they not heroes who can stand at bay
To fight a losing battle!—Cheeks are wet
And hearts are wrung, but when God's task is set
'T is theirs to strive and die amid the fray.

And they die silent!—In that mighty throng
Are pale-lipped mothers with strained anxious eyes
And youth deprived of joy and strength grown weak,
With bare and bleeding hands they fight the wrong
And crushed by failure some poor hearts must break,
Yet o'er their graves the path of victory lies!