How He Died
Original Text:
Plain Talk in Psalm and Parable. Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, 1899. 3rd edn.: London, F.R. Henderson, 1901.
1So he died for his faith. That is fine.
2 More than most of us do.
3But stay; can you add to that line
4 That he lived for it too?
5It is easy to die. Men have died
6 For a wish or a whim --
7From bravado, from passion or pride;
8 Was it harder for him?
9But to live; every day to live out
10 All the truth that he dreamt,
11While his friends met his conduct with doubt,
12 And the world with contempt --
13Was it thus that he plodded ahead,
14 Never turning aside?
15Then we'll talk of the life that he led,
16 Never mind how he died.
RPO poem Editors:
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition:
2004
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