Poems (Hardy)/The immortal
THE IMMORTAL
A MAN went forth to battle once and set
His flag upon the blackened wall of fate;
Then when the death foreseen had made him great,
His mourning country strove to pay the debt
With laureled marble and with carved regret;
She wrote his deed upon the book of state,
She graved it, blazoned, on the palace gate,
Dared Time himself to read and then forget.
Yet moss-grown is that name now. None can know
What thing was done that marble should be piled.
But brave young hearts arise, and haste, and go
To victory still, chanting with joyous tread
The ballad bold that roused and reconciled
To death that nameless one among the dead.
His flag upon the blackened wall of fate;
Then when the death foreseen had made him great,
His mourning country strove to pay the debt
With laureled marble and with carved regret;
She wrote his deed upon the book of state,
She graved it, blazoned, on the palace gate,
Dared Time himself to read and then forget.
Yet moss-grown is that name now. None can know
What thing was done that marble should be piled.
But brave young hearts arise, and haste, and go
To victory still, chanting with joyous tread
The ballad bold that roused and reconciled
To death that nameless one among the dead.