For The Man Who Fails

The world is a snob, and the man who wins     Is the chap for its money's worth:     And the lust for success causes half of the sins     That are cursing this brave old earth.     For it 's fine to go up, and the world's applause     Is sweet to the mortal ear;     But the man who fails in a noble cause     Is a hero that 's no less dear.     'T is true enough that the laurel crown     Twines but for the victor's brow;     For many a hero has lain him down     With naught but the cypress bough.     There are gallant men in the losing fight,     And as gallant deeds are done     As ever graced the captured height     Or the battle grandly won.     We sit at life's board with our nerves highstrung,     And we play for the stake of Fame,     And our odes are sung and our banners hung     For the man who wins the game.     But I have a song of another kind     Than breathes in these fame-wrought gales,--     An ode to the noble heart and mind     Of the gallant man who fails!     The man who is strong to fight his fight,     And whose will no front can daunt,     If the truth be truth and the right be right,     Is the man that the ages want.     Tho' he fail and die in grim defeat,     Yet he has not fled the strife,     And the house of Earth will seem more sweet     For the perfume of his life.