Most valiant are we, to take upon us
Uncommon duty, and we must not fail
Our offices of unity, but pay
Swift retribution to those Terran spies
Who break the peace. They seek chaos, but fail.
There lies the ship; the engines burn with fuel;
There glooms the dark, broad night. My fellow crew,
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and fought with me,--
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and championed
Free hearts and free minds,-- our age is not past;
This age hath yet its honor and its toil.
Flames may close all; but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men and Hegemons.
The stars begin to twinkle from the skies;
The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends.
Tis not too late to build a better world.
We fight here on The Well in order smite
The treacherous foe; for our purpose holds
To fly into the whirlwind, and the heart
Of the coming darkness, until we die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Vissarion, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,--
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
(*)
Based on the poem "Ulysses".