Battle-Retrospect, and Other Poems/The Wise Dead
THE WISE DEAD.
Farewell,
Children of thunder!
Born to dark strategic rôles on earth.
Who fell
In cataclysm, questing the new birth,
Children of wonder!
Farewell,
Promethean explorers!
Who spurned the tedium of the endless draw
And must rebel
And plunge across the pale to find what law
Prolonged the folly,—past our gaping awe.
Effectual implorers!
Farewell,
Coercers of Victory!
The weight of whose redemption tipped the scale,
Who could compel
The waiting destinies within the veil;
With whom this only gesture could avail—
Your Valedictory!