But thou would’st not alone
Be saved, my father! alone 125
Conquer and come to thy goal,
Leaving the rest in the wild. 
We were weary, and we
Fearful, and we in our march
Fain to drop down and to die. 130
Still thou turnedst, and still
Beckonedst the trembler, and still
Gavest the weary thy hand.

If, in the paths of the world,
Stones might have wounded thy feet, 135
Toil or dejection have tried
Thy spirit, of that we saw
Nothing—­to us thou wast still
Cheerful, and helpful, and firm! 
Therefore to thee it was given 140
Many to save with thyself;
And, at the end of thy day,
O faithful shepherd! to come,
Bringing thy sheep in thy hand. deg. deg.144

And through thee I believe 145
In the noble and great who are gone;
Pure souls honour’d and blest
By former ages, who else—­
Such, so soulless, so poor,
Is the race of men whom I see—­ 150
Seem’d but a dream of the heart,
Seem’d but a cry of desire. 
Yes!  I believe that there lived
Others like thee in the past,
Not like the men of the crowd 155
Who all round me to-day
Bluster or cringe, and make life
Hideous, and arid, and vile;
But souls temper’d with fire,
Fervent, heroic, and good, 160
Helpers and friends of mankind.

Servants of God!—­or sons
Shall I not call you? because
Not as servants ye knew
Your Father’s innermost mind, 165
His, who unwillingly sees
One of his little ones lost—­
Yours is the praise, if mankind
Hath not as yet in its march
Fainted, and fallen, and died! 170

See!  In the rocks deg. of the world
Marches the host of mankind,
A feeble, wavering line. 
Where are they tending?—­A God
Marshall’d them, gave them their goal. 175
Ah, but the way is so long! 
Years they have been in the wild! 
Sore thirst plagues them, the rocks,
Rising all round, overawe;
Factions divide them, their host 180
Threatens to break, to dissolve. 
—­Ah, keep, keep them combined! 
Else, of the myriads who fill
That army, not one shall arrive;
Sole they shall stray:  in the rocks 185
Stagger for ever in vain,
Die one by one in the waste.