The Poems of Richard Watson Gilder

Since ancient Time began,
Ever on some great soul God laid an infinite burden—
The weight of all this world, the hopes of man.
Conflict and pain, and fame immortal are his guerdon!

And this the unfaltering token
Of him, the Deliverer—what tho' tempests beat,
Tho' all else fail, tho' bravest ranks be broken,
He stands unscared, alone, nor ever knows defeat.

Such was that man of men;
And if are praised all virtues, every fame
Most noble, highest, purest—then, ah! then,
Upleaps in every heart the name none needs to name.

Ye who defeated, 'whelmed,
Betray the sacred cause, let go the trust;

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Sleep, weary, while the vessel drifts unhelmed;
Here see in triumph rise the hero from the dust!

All ye who fight forlorn
'Gainst fate and failure; ye who proudly cope
With evil high enthroned; all ye who scorn
Life from Dishonor's hand, here take new heart of hope.

Here know how Victory borrows
For the brave soul a front as of disaster,
And from the bannered East what glorious morrows
For all the blackness of the night speed surer, faster.

Know by this pillared sign
For what brief while the powers of earth and hell
Can war against the spirit of truth divine,
Or can against the heroic heart of man prevail.

University of Virginia Library

WASHINGTON AT TRENTON

THE BATTLE MONUMENT, OCTOBER 19, 1893