The Ultimate Victory

As men that labor in a mountain war--
Scaling sheer cliffs, hewing out stairs of stone,
Trenching the ice, quenching the torrent’s roar
With rolling thunders in the gorges lone--
Having seized a height, might stand with dazzled stare,
Seeing, beyond, a highest heavenly peak
Hung lucent as a cloud in the bright air,
Still to be won: O thus, even thus, we seek
Peace beyond War! and thus the Vision gleams
Upon us battling, that snow-crest sublime,
That holy mountain, that pure crown of dreams,
Toward which Man’s soul has struggled up through Time.
In blood and sweat we war that War may cease;
And storming the last peak, we conquer Peace.