Poetry Archives

Weep, Israel! your tardy meed outpour
  Of grateful homage on his fallen head,
That never coronal of triumph wore,
  Untombed, dishonored, and unchapleted.
If Victory makes the hero, raw Success
  The stamp of virtue, unremembered
Be then the desperate strife, the storm and stress
  Of the last Warrior Jew.  But if the man
Who dies for freedom, loving all things less,
  Against world-legions, mustering his poor clan;
The weak, the wronged, the miserable, to send
  Their death-cry’s protest through the ages’ span—
If such an one be worthy, ye shall lend
  Eternal thanks to him, eternal praise.
Nobler the conquered than the conqueror’s end!