THIS was the man God gave us when the hour Proclaimed the dawn of Liberty begun; Who dared a deed, and died when it was done Patient in triumph, temperate in power, -- Not striving like the Corsican to tower To heaven, nor like great Philip's greater son To win the world and weep for worlds unwon, Or lose the star to revel in the flower. The lives that serve the eternal verities Alone do mould mankind. Pleasure and pride Sparkle awhile and perish, as the spray Smoking across the crests of cavernous seas Is impotent to hasten or delay The everlasting surges of the tide. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CHARLESTON by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE HIS GRANGE, OR PRIVATE WEALTH by ROBERT HERRICK THE MAN-OF-WAR HAWK by HERMAN MELVILLE TO THE UNKNOWN EROS: BOOK 1: 16. A FAREWELL by COVENTRY KERSEY DIGHTON PATMORE IN STATE by BYRON FORCEYTHE WILLSON |