Life and Death

by Ernest Howard Crosby

 

So he died for his faith. That is fine ---

    More than most of us do.

But, say, can you add to that line

    That he lived for it, too?

In his death he bore witness at last

    As a martyr to the truth.

Did his life do the same in the past,

    From the days of his youth?

It is easy to die! Men have died

    For a wish or a whim ---

For bravado or passion or pride,

    Was it harder for him?

But to live --- every day to live out

    All the truth that he dreamt

While his friends met his conduct with doubt

    And the world with contempt.

Was it thus that he plodded ahead,

    Never turning aside?

Then we'll talk of the life that he lived.

    Never mind how he died.