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Paul Laurence Dunbar - For The Man Who Fails
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The world is a snob, and the man who wins
    Is the chap for its money`s worth:
  And the lust for success causes half of the sins
    That are cursing this brave old earth.
  For it `s fine to go up, and the world`s applause
    Is sweet to the mortal ear;
  But the man who fails in a noble cause
    Is a hero that `s no less dear.

  `T is true enough that the laurel crown
    Twines but for the victor`s brow;
  For many a hero has lain him down
    With naught but the cypress bough.
  There are gallant men in the losing fight,
    And as gallant deeds are done
  As ever graced the captured height
    Or the battle grandly won.

  We sit at life`s board with our nerves highstrung,
    And we play for the stake of Fame,
  And our odes are sung and our banners hung
    For the man who wins the game.
  But I have a song of another kind
    Than breathes in these fame-wrought gales,--
  An ode to the noble heart and mind
    Of the gallant man who fails!

  The man who is strong to fight his fight,
    And whose will no front can daunt,
  If the truth be truth and the right be right,
    Is the man that the ages want.
  Tho` he fail and die in grim defeat,
    Yet he has not fled the strife,
  And the house of Earth will seem more sweet
    For the perfume of his life.
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