O MARTYRDOM of hope!—to lie | |
| In youth and strength—and die | |
| ’Mid rotting hulks that once by every sea | |
| And star swung carelessly— | |
| To die becalmed in war’s black hell, | 5 |
| Where in the noon’s wide blaze your hearts could soar | |
| With gull and eagle by each cherished shore | |
| Of home—where ye had sworn to dwell | |
| The fathers of the free. | |
| |
| Blessed and radiant now!—look down | 10 |
| In consecration of the solemn deed | |
| Which here commemorates this iron breed | |
| Of martyrs nameless in the clay | |
| As the true heroes of our newer day— | |
| World heroes—patterned not on king and demi-god | 15 |
| Of charioted splendor or of crown | |
| Blood crusted—but on toilers in the sod, | |
| On reapers of the sea, on lovers of mankind, | |
| Whose bruisèd shoulders bear | |
| The lumbering wain of progress—all who share | 20 |
| The crust and sorrows of our mortal lot— | |
| Lamps of the soul The Christ hath left behind | |
| To light the path whereon He faltered not. | |
| |
| And ye, O sailors faring buoyant forth, | |
| Bear ye the tidings of this joy-swept main | 25 |
| Where round the coasts of Celt or Dane | |
| Ye brave the sleet-mouthed north | |
| Or track the moon on some Sicilian wave | |
| Or lonely cape of Spain; | |
| Take ye the story of these comrades true | 30 |
| Whose prison hulks sank here | |
| Where now such tides of men are poured | |
| As never surged o’er crag or fiord | |
| To stay the gulls with fear— | |
| Who yet such quest of glory know | 35 |
| As never Argonaut of old | |
| Seeking the shores of gold— | |
| As never knight from wound and vigil pale | |
| Tracing o’er sunset worlds his Holy Grail. | |
| |
| And lo!—to all the seas a pharos set | 40 |
| In sign memorial! Through the glooms of Time | |
| ’Twill teach a sacrifice of self sublime | |
| O’er lash of storms as through corroding calms, | |
| Nor e’er alone shall shine | |
| Its love-bright parapet; | 45 |
| But every star shall bring a golden alms;— | |
| The seething harbour line | |
| Glow ’neath its star-fed hives, its swing and flare | |
| Of Bridges;—while with pilgrim lamps from sea | |
| Shall grope the Dreadnought fleets;—while endless prayer | 50 |
| Of dawns and sunsets floods the faces far | |
| Uplifted, tear-stained, to this Martyr shrine— | |
| Whose sister torch shall greet what Liberty | |
| Holds back to God,—earth’s brightest answering star. | |
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