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When some that followed Truth shall stand
beside her in the Fatherland,
When they that win shall claim the meed
of all their faith in word and deed,
What shall the bitter strife avail of those
that only strove to fail?

 

When one shall clasp her like a bride, a
crowned victor at her side,
And one that saw her all too fair, and
made her glory his despair,
May still behold her like a star, forever
calm, and bright, and far!

 

They come, a sad and silent host, from
valleys where her trail was lost,
From many a dark and deadly field, from
many an ambush late revealed,
From many a watch in fatal hour of
darkness and the evil power.

 

They dreamed of her in alien lands, they
worshipped her with chained hands,
On dungeon-walls they carved her name, her
glory triumphed in the shame
That kept upon their dying breath one
word of anguish worse than death.

 

Their quenchless hell of vain desire was
kindled with celestial fire,
The joy of heaven becomes their pain, the
face of her they loved in vain,
Yet must forever love, and choose--alas!
As they can love who lose!

 

The harpers tell the victor's tale, but who
shall speak for those that fail?
Once let the unutterable cry come up
and hush the startled sky,
And answer, all ye souls in bliss, if yours
was sorrow like to this!

 

O happy victors, is it well that yours is
heaven and theirs is hell?
Who knows? the end may tarry long, and
one is weak, and one is strong,
And they that halt are left behind, and
two shall seek, and one shall find.

 

O God, shall these forever fail, shall not
their hopeless faith avail,
Their love be counted faith at length, their
prayers prevail instead of strength,
To lift them with the justified, the
martyr by the hero's side?

 

Thou seest not with mortal eyes, thou
Keeper of the destinies!
O Truth, what angel knows the sign of those
who shall at last be thine?
Who shall behold thee face to face,
And win thy silent secret place?

 

The crowned victor yet may fail,
And only love at last avail,
Beyond the triumph and the tears; but ah,
The weary, woeful years,
The heartsick hope, the matchless pain, of
those who dreamed they loved in vain!