Who cares for what has passed away,'-- My twin-born brother, meek and tame, Who troops along with crippled Time, And shrinks at every cry of shame, And halts at every stain and crime; While I, through tears and blood and guilt, Stride on, remorseless and sublime. War with his offspring as thou wilt; Lay thy cold lips against their cheek. The poison or the dagger-hilt Is what my desperate children seek. Their dust is rubbish on the hills; Beyond the grave they would not speak. Shall man surround his days with ills, And live as if his only care Were how to die, while full life thrills His bounding blood? To plan and dare, To use life is life's proper end: Let death come when it will, and where!"-- "You prattle on, as babes that spend Their morning half within the brink Of the bright heaven from which they wend; But what I am you dare not think. Thick, brooding shadow round me lies; You stare till terror makes you wink; I go not, though you shut your eyes. Unclose again the loathful lid, And lo, I sit beneath the skies, As Sphinx beside the pyramid!" So Death, with solemn rise and fall Of voice, his sombre mind undid. He paused; resuming,--"I am all; I am the refuge and the rest; The heart aches not beneath my pall. O soldier, thou art young, unpressed By snarling grief's increasing swarm; While joy is dancing in thy breast, Fly from the future's fated harm; Rush where the fronts of battle meet, And let me take thee on my arm!" Said Glory,--"Warrior, fear deceit, Where Death gives counsel. Run thy race; Bring the world cringing to thy feet! Surely no better time nor place Than this, where all the Nation calls For help, and weakness and disgrace Lag in her tents and council-halls, And down on aching heart and brain Blow after blow unbroken falls. Her strength flows out through every vein; Mere time consumes her to the core; Her stubborn pride becomes her bane. In vain she names her children o'er; They fail her in her hour of need; She mourns at desperation's door. Be thine the hand to do the deed, To seize the sword, to mount the throne, And wear the purple as thy meed! No heart shall grudge it; not a groan Shall shame thee. Ponder what it were To save a land thus twice thy own!" Use gave a more familiar air To my companions; and I spoke My heart out to the ethereal pair:-- "When in her wrath the Nation broke Her easy rest of love and peace, I was the latest who awoke. I sighed at passion's mad increase. I strained the traitors to my heart. I said, 'We vex them; let us cease.' I would not play the common part. Tamely I heard the Southrons' brag: