My Portion is Defeat today

My Portion is Defeat today
A paler luck than Victory
Less Paeans fewer Bells
The Drums don’t follow Me with tunes
Defeat a somewhat slower means
More Arduous than Balls

‘Tis populous with Bone and stain
And Men too straight to stoop again,
And Piles of solid Moan
And Chips of Blank in Boyish Eyes
And scraps of Prayer
And Death’s surprise,
Stamped visible in Stone

There’s somewhat prouder, over there
The Trumpets tell it to the Air
How different Victory
To Him who has it and the One
Who to have had it, would have been
Contender to die

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