The Great

This way in power the great went by.
Hark to the echoes throbbing still !
Hark to the voices chanting high
Deeds for a while that shall not die !

Splendid they shone in purple and gold.
See where we caught the perfect gleam, —
Wrought it in tapestry of old.
The purple fades but the gold is gold.

The great, they bore a soul in each,
A link-shell in the chain of souls,
Theirs were the jewels of Life's beach,
From gem to gem an age doth reach.

Heaven-lent, for Heaven they held their dream,
Though their vesture, e'en purple, marked it not :
The earthlings one in fortune seem,
But are forgone — no gold, no gleam !

This way the great shall ever pace, —
Be our great the great till the end of it;
Fall not our gold from' its burnished place ;
Be our voice not dumb to another race.

This way — or so then, not this way,
Perhaps not thus the great will go;
Perhaps our Heaven they will gainsay;
Our jewels perhaps — so not this way.