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77
AT BAY
This the end, then, of striving; this is what comes of it all;
Darkness and foes just behind one; before, an impassable wall.
What does it matter how staunchly one may have battled for truth,
When with his weapons all broken he sits by the grave of his youth?
What did it profit in past years that one did the best that one knew,
When in the gloom of the present, virtue herself seems untrue?
Why should one fight any longer when nothing remains but defeat?
Surely such labour were useless, and idle the stirring of feet.
Darkness and foes just behind one; before, an impassable wall.
What does it matter how staunchly one may have battled for truth,
When with his weapons all broken he sits by the grave of his youth?
What did it profit in past years that one did the best that one knew,
When in the gloom of the present, virtue herself seems untrue?
Why should one fight any longer when nothing remains but defeat?
Surely such labour were useless, and idle the stirring of feet.
Ah! but the soul that is faithful knows it is well to have fought;
Knows it is good to have acted, whatever the doing has brought.
This is the crown of the conflict, this the reward of all strife,—
Faith in one's self and one's motives, no matter how darkened the life.
Flesh may be bruised and defeated, but spirit is never disgraced;
Spirit is always triumphant, whatever sharp pain it it has faced.
Knows it is good to have acted, whatever the doing has brought.
This is the crown of the conflict, this the reward of all strife,—
Faith in one's self and one's motives, no matter how darkened the life.
78
Spirit is always triumphant, whatever sharp pain it it has faced.
Here, at the end of my conflict, I counsel not yet with dispair,
Though to all seeming my struggles are his who but beateth the air.
Darkness and foes are about me, yet I stand with my back to the wall,
Facing whatever Fate sends me, and facing Fate thus I shall fall!
Though to all seeming my struggles are his who but beateth the air.
Darkness and foes are about me, yet I stand with my back to the wall,
Facing whatever Fate sends me, and facing Fate thus I shall fall!
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