Page:Poems Blake.djvu/50

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42
HEROES.
No passion shock, no battle blaze,
Has raised them from the dust;
They have but walked life's humble ways,
And held life's humble-trust.

'T is grand to see the spirit rise
Before some pending fate,
To see the soul in human eyes
Shine out divinely great;
To see men strike against the night.
Of earthly wrong and sin,
And scorch it with the scathing might
That speaks the God within;

Yet when I read the storied past,
In which such deeds have place,
While the quick blood beats high and fast,
In triumph for my race,
I can but think how many a life,
As true, as strong, as brave,
Has conquered in an unknown strife,
And filled an unknown grave.

The men who fight through want and war,
Yet heave not sigh nor groan,
Who show the mark of wound and scar
To God and heaven alone,