Page:Poems, Volume 2, Coates, 1916.djvu/32

16 His kindred are the bold who, undismayed,

Believe that good is ever within reach;

All who move onward—howsoe'er delayed—

Who learn, that they may teach;

Who overcoming pain and weariness,

In life's long battle bear a noble part;

All who, like him,—greatest of gifts!—possess

The genius of the heart!

How should we praise whose deeds belittle praise,

Whose monument perpetual is our land

Saved by his wisdom, in disastrous days,

From tyranny's strong hand?—

How praise whose Titan-thought, beyond Earth's ken

Aspiring, tamed the lightnings in revolt,

Subduing to the will of mortal men

The awful thunderbolt?

Our debt looms larger than our love can pay:

We know not with what homage him to grace

Whose name outlasts the monument's decay,—

A glory to our race!