Page:Impressions- A Book of Verse.djvu/70

 FAILURE

ACH 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!