 | Collected poems of Herman Melville |  |
THE FORTITUDE OF THE NORTH
UNDER THE DISASTER OF THE SECOND MANASSAS
No shame they take for dark defeatWhile prizing yet each victory won,
Who fight for the Right through all retreat,
Nor pause until their work is done.
The Cape-of-Storms is proof to every throe;
Vainly against that foreland beat
Wild winds aloft and wilder waves below:
The black cliffs gleam through rents in sleet
When the livid Antarctic storm-clouds glow.
| Collected poems of Herman Melville | |