The Kings

A MAN said unto his Angel:

“My spirits are fallen low,

And I cannot carry this battle:

O brother! where might I go?

“The terrible Kings are on me

With spears that are deadly bright;

Against me so from the cradle

Do fate and my fathers fight.”

Then said to the man his Angel:

“Thou wavering, witless soul,

Back to the ranks! What matter

To win or to lose the whole,

“As judged by the little judges

Who hearken not well, nor see?

Not thus, by the outer issue,

The Wise shall interpret thee.

“Thy will is the sovereign measure

And only events of things:

The puniest heart, defying,

Were stronger than all these Kings.

“Though out of the past they gather,

Mind’s Doubt, and Bodily Pain,

And pallid Thirst of the Spirit

That is kin to the other twain,

“And Grief, in a cloud of banners,

And ringletted Vain Desires,

And Vice, with the spoils upon him

Of thee and thy beaten sires,—

“While Kings of eternal evil

Yet darken the hills about,

Thy part is with broken sabre

To rise on the last redoubt;

“To fear not sensible failure,

Nor covet the game at all,

But fighting, fighting, fighting,

Die, driven against the wall.”