Page:Poems (IA poemslowell00lowe).pdf/96

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MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
And, when thou art but a dim moaning heardFrom out the pitiless glooms of Chaos, IShall be a power and a memory,A name to fright all tyrants with, a lightUnsetting as the pole-star, a great voiceHeard in the breathless pauses of the fightBy truth and freedom ever waged with wrong,Clear as a silver trumpet, to awakeHuge echoes that from age to age live onIn kindred spirits, giving them a senseOf boundless power from boundless suffering wrung:And many a glazing eye shall smile to seeThe memory of my triumph, (for to meetWrong with endurance, and to overcomeThe present with a heart that looks beyond,Are triumph), like a prophet eagle, perchUpon the sacred banner of the Right.Evil springs up, and flowers, and bears no seed,And feeds the green earth with its swift decay,Leaving it richer for the growth of truth;But Good, once put in action or in thought,Like a strong oak, doth from its boughs shed down
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