To do the tasks of life, and be not lost;
To mingle, yet dwell apart;
To be by roughest seas how rudely tossed,
Yet bate no jot of heart;
To hold thy course among the heavenly stars,
Yet dwell upon the earth;
To stand behind Fate's firm-laid prison bars,
Yet win all Freedom's worth.
--Sydney Henry Morse.
'Twere sweet indeed to close our eyes
with those we cherish near,
And wafted upward by their sighs soar
to some calmer sphere;
But whether on the scaffold high or
in the battle's van
The fittest place where man can die
is where he dies for man.
--Michael Joseph Barry.