The Living and the Dead

For you, who must remain in Asphodel, We weep for you, who have forever fell. Yet we, who lost the moment, gained all time. In falling, do we hope that others climb. And though we lost our little lot of Earth, We wish upon it all a grander birth. Though life is for the living, not the dead, Your lives our dreams, when we are gone to bed. For the dreams of fallen fighters Are the walkways of our world: Be they heroes, be they blighters, We’re the fabric they unfurled. How much to those departed do we owe, Whose bloods and brains didst build the world we know! For sunlight rolled from off their learned tongue! For ancient are the thoughts, forever young. We paid no slavish homage to the past, Nor failed to lend our glory to our day. Take then our best, and nothing more need last, And let thy beacon cast a brilliant ray. We live as long as you recall our name. We held the torch, and now we pass the flame.