"Surrender in Victory"

Surrender in Victory

Lord, we have made an honest fight
        And won the victory;
We fought as men who love the right,
        Fiercely and fearlessly;
And now we turn aside and give
        Our trembling thanks to Thee.

Lord, it is not for us to drink
        The salt cup of defeat,
And victory is glorious,
        And victory is sweet;
Yet still we bow our heads and lay
        Our laurels at Thy feet.

It is not for Americans
        To boast that they have slain
The heroes who have fought and bled
        For their belovéd Spain;
Nay,—help us to remember, Lord,
        That they have died in vain. 


Not sweet can it be, Lord, to Thee, 
        But grievous in Thy sight,
For nations to rise up in wrath
        And man with man to fight, —
Each thinking his the only truth,
        And his the only right.

But, Lord, the need was, and we fought
        Fiercely and fearlessly;
And still less sweet would it be now—
        More grievous—unto Thee
For us to blow the trumpet loud
        In boastful jubilee.

So check the tumult of our joy,
        And hush the rising cheers;
We have the splendid victory,
        And they the blistering tears;
For us the laurel wreaths; for them
        Defeat that burns and sears.

It is the time for thought; the time
        For noble silence, Lord;
To-day the mourning-dove of peace
        Thro’ all our land is heard;
To Thee alone Americans
        Kiss and give up the sword.


"Surrender in Victory" as it appears in Ella Higginson's The Voice of April-Land and Other Poems (1903).


"Surrender in Victory" as it appears in Ella Higginson's Four-Leaf Clover (1901).

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