Literature Network » Herman Melville » The Fortitude of the North

The Fortitude of the North

Under the Disaster of the Second Manassas.

They take no shame for dark defeat
While prizing yet each victory won,
Who fight for the Right through all retreat,
Nor pause until their work is done.
The Cape-of-Storms is proof to every throe;
Vainly against that foreland beat
Wild winds aloft and wilder waves below:
The black cliffs gleam through rents in sleet
When the livid Antarctic storm-clouds glow.

Literature Network » Herman Melville » The Fortitude of the North