XXV.
Forget? no, never—ne’er shall die,
Those names to memory dear;
I read the promise in each eye
That beams upon me here.
Descendants of a twice-recorded race,
Long may ye here your lofty lineage grace;
’Tis not for you home’s tender tie
To rend, and brave the waste of waves;
’Tis not for you to rouse and die,
Or yield and live a line of slaves;
The deeds of danger and of death are done:
Upheld by inward power alone,
Unhonoured by the world’s loud tongue,
[p19]
’Tis yours to do unknown,
And then to die unsung.
To other days, to other men belong
The penman’s plaudit and the poet’s song;
Enough for glory has been wrought,
By you be humbler praises sought;
In peace and truth life’s journey run,
And keep unsullied what your Fathers won.