Page:Poems Blake.djvu/49

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HEROES.
Where the red path of battle sweeps,
Where martial feet have trod,
And Death the ripened harvest reaps,
To offer up to God;
Where steel and smoke and cannon roll
Awake the startled air,
You test the strength of fire and soul,
And find your heroes there.

I too, upon my scroll of fame,
Have set those names apart,
Whose blood was poured to quench the flame
That fired their country's heart;
Who looked beyond the shades of death,
Though doubt and fear were nigh,
And gave each pulse of life and breath,
That Freedom might not die.

But I have other names beside,
That you perhaps would scout,
For no great triumph broad and wide
Has rung their praises out: