The neck tight-corded, too, the chin deep-trenched,

As if a cloud enveloped him while fought

Under its shade, grim prizers, thought with thought

At dead-lock, agonizing he, until

The victor thought leap radiant up, and Will,

The slave with folded arms and drooping lids

They fought for, lean forth flame-like as it bids.

Call him no flower—a mandrake of the earth,

Thwarted and dwarfed and blasted in its birth,

Rather,—a fruit of suffering's excess,