VICTORY.

By Rennell Rodd

This then — to live and have no joy thereof,

To thirst and hunger and be very tired,

To walk unloved, or know if one should love

It were a bitter thing that he desired,

To have no home in all the earth, to be

Mocked and derided and outcast of men,

To squander love and labour, and to see

No fruit of it, and yet to love, and then

Bearing all slander silently alway,

Serenely when the last reproach is hurled

To look Death in the face alone, and say

“Be of good cheer for I have overcome the world.”