YOU glorify him as a hero, and you crown him with laurel and bay, And of bronze do you set up a tablet, who has vanquished his foe in hot fray; And you chisel his features in marble, and high do you lift him in fame, But his deed of the mightiest courage, you pass by and never do name. For the foeman he met on the war-field was never a peer to his might And he fought him with weapon of temper, and he faced him in God's wholesome light, And the might of his tendons availed him, and the shrill lust to kill was in air, And he fought with a weaker against him, where the world could behold and see fair. But I know of a battle all dreadful, that he waged with his soul against hell, In the blackness and drearness of midnight. And I crown him for this. I would tell How a woman surpassing all women, delivered herself to him, whole, When his lust burned his veins into cinder, and in passion, he spared her soul. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HOPE (1) by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON THE SONG OF THE SHEPHERDS by EDWIN MARKHAM |