IV + 

Victory + 

Roland is dead, Cuchulain’s crest is low, + 

The battered war-rear wastes and turns to rust, + 

And Helen’s eyes and Iseult’s lips are dust + 

And dust the shoulders and the breasts of snow. + 

The faerie people from our woods are gone, + 

No Dryads have I found in all our trees, + 

No Triton blows his horn about our seas + 

And Arthur sleeps far hence in Avalon. + 

The ancient songs they wither as the grass + 

And waste as doth a garment waxen old, + 

All poets have been fools who thought to mould + 

A monument more durable than brass. + 

For these decay: but not for that decays + 

The yearning, high, rebellious spirit of man + 

That never rested yet since life began + 

From striving with red Nature and her ways. + 

Now in the filth of war, the baresark shout + 

Of battle, it is vexed. And yet so oft + 

Out of the deeps, of old, it rose aloft + 

That they who watch the ages may not doubt. + 

Though often bruised, oft broken by the rod, + 

Yet, like the phoenix, from each fiery bed + 

Higher the stricken spirit lifts its head + 

And higher⁠—till the beast become a god. + 