Chapter 184 of 482 · 72 words · ~1 min read

XXXIII.

Men have been firm in battle; they have stood With a prevailing hope on ravaged plains, And won the birthright of their hearths with blood, And died rejoicing, midst their ancient fanes, That so their children, undefiled with chains, Might worship there in peace. But they that stand When not a beacon o’er the wave remains, Link’d but to perish with a ruin’d land, Where Freedom dies with them--call _these_ a martyr-band!