Courage

True, we must tame our rebel will:     True, we must bow to Natures law:     Must bear in silence many an ill;     Must learn to wait, renounce, withdraw.     Yet now, when boldest wills give place,     When Fate and Circumstance are strong,     And in their rush the human race     Are swept, like huddling sheep, along;     Those sterner spirits let me prize,     Who, though the tendence of the whole     They less than us might recognize,     Kept, more than us, their strength of soul.     Yes, be the second Cato praisd!     Not that he took the course to die     But that, when gainst himself he raisd     His arm, he raisd it dauntlessly.     And, Byron! let us dare admire,     If not thy fierce and turbid song,     Yet that, in anguish, doubt, desire,     Thy fiery courage still was strong.     The sun that on thy tossing pain     Did with such cold derision shine.     He crushd thee not with his disdain     He had his glow, and thou hadst thine.     Our bane, disguise it as we may,     Is weakness, is a faltering course.     Oh that past times could give our day,     Joind to its clearness, of their force!