University of Virginia Library

FOR THOSE WHO FAIL

“All honor to him who shall win the prize,”
The world has cried for a thousand years;
But to him who tries, and who fails and dies,
I give great honor and glory and tears:
Give glory and honor and pitiful tears
To all who fail in their deeds sublime;
Their ghosts are many in the van of years,
They were born with Time, in advance of their Time.
Oh, great is the hero who wins a name,
But greater many and many a time

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Some pale-faced fellow who dies in shame,
And lets God finish the thought sublime.
And great is the man with a sword undrawn,
And good is the man who refrains from wine;
But the man who fails and yet still fights on,
Lo, he is the twin-born brother of mine.
 

From “Memorie and Rime,” by permission of Funk & Wagnalls, publishers of the Standard Dictionary and the Standard Library, of which this above book is one.