Page:Poems Blake.djvu/139

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VICTORY!
Flash the news, exultant wire,
Send it throbbing through the land!
Blaze it like an altar-fire,
Consecrating heart and hand;
Ring it over streets and lanes,
Fling it full on land and sea,
Shout on all our hills and plains,
         Victory!

Dearly bought? Nay, never fear!
Right is right, whate'er it cost;
He who sees both blood and tear
Will not count His heroes lost.
What is life when honor dies,—
What is death when souls are free,—
Which is writ in Heaven's eyes
         Victory?

If perchance some note of pain,
Sad as sorrow, sweet and low,
Falls like fall of weeping rain,
For vanished friend and vanished foe,