Better to sink with tempests raging o’er

Masts all dismantled and hull gaping wide

Than rest and rot on some unclouded shore

The idle plaything of the listless tide.

 

Better the grime of battle on the brow,

With grim defeat to crush thy dying hand

Than through long years of peace to tyrant bow

Or dwell captive in a stranger’s land.

 

Better the castle with beleaguered gate,

By battle’s lightning shivered in a day

Than peaceful walls in pomp of sullen state,

Through centuries sinking to a dull decay.

 

Better resolve to win thy heart’s desire,

And striving bravely, die in the endeavor

Than have the embers of some smothered fire

Lie smoldering in thy saddened soul forever.

 

― Sam Davis