States are not great
Except as man may make them;
Men are not great except they do and dare.
But States, like men,
Have destinies that take them--
That bear them on, not knowing why or where.
The _why_ repels
The philosophic searcher--
The _why_ and _where_ all questionings defy,
Until we find,
Far back in youthful nurture,
Prophetic facts that constitute the _why_.
All merit comes
From braving the unequal;
All glory comes from daring to begin.
Fame loves the State
That, reckless of the sequel,
Fights long and well, whether it lose or win.
* * * * *
And there is one
Whose faith, whose fight, whose failing,
Fame shall placard upon the walls of time.
He dared begin--
Despite the unavailing,
He dared begin, when failure was a crime.
When over Africa
Some future cycle
Shall sweep the lake-gemmed uplands with its surge;
When, as with trumpet
Of Archangel Michael,
Culture shall bid a colored race emerge;
* * * * *
From boulevards
O'erlooking both Nyanzas,
The statured bronze shall glitter in the sun,
With rugged lettering:
"JOHN BROWN OF KANSAS:
HE DARED BEGIN;
HE LOST,
BUT, LOSING, WON."
--_Eugene Ware_.