A MAN said unto his Angel: "My spirits are fallen low, And I cannot carry this battle: O brother! where might I go? "The terrible Kings are on me With spears that are deadly bright; Against me so from the cradle Do fate and my fathers fight." Then said to the man his Angel: "Thou wavering, witless soul, Back to the ranks! What matter To win or lose the whole, "As judged by the little judges Who hearken not well, nor see? Not thus, by the outer issue, The Wise shall interpret thee. "Thy will is the sovereign measure And only event of things: The puniest heart, defying, Were stronger than all these Kings. "Though out of the past they gather, Mind's Doubt, and Bodily Pain, And pallid Thirst of the Spirit That is kin to the other twain. "And Grief, in a cloud of banners, And ringleted Vain Desires, And Vice, with the spoils upon him Of thee and thy beaten sires, -- "While Kings of eternal evil Yet darken the hills about, Thy part is with broken sabre To rise on the last redoubt; "To fear not sensible failure, Nor covet the game at all, But fighting, fighting, fighting, Die, driven against the wall!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LE MEDECIN MALGRE LUI by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS I, TOO by JAMES LANGSTON HUGHES LITTLE BOATIE'; A SLUMBER SONG FOR THE FISHERMAN'S CHILD by HENRY VAN DYKE BEAUTIFUL SNOW by JOHN WHITAKER WATSON TO AN INDEPENDENT PREACHER by MATTHEW ARNOLD |