UNCONQUERED, a poem

DEEM not, O Pain, that thou shalt vanquish me,
     Who know each treacherous pang, each last device,
     Whereby thou barrest the way to Paradise!
Inured to suffer constantly
     Thy joyless fellowship, I gain
     The lessons only taught by Pain,
And know, though broken, that my will
               Subdues thee still!

Man was not born the slave of things like thee
     And thy companion, Death: the livelong day
     He valiant strives, and holds ye still at bay;
And when he can no longer see
     For thickening shadows, faint and spent
     He bears his standard to his tent
And yields ye seeming victory;
          But—he is free!

"Unconquered" by Florence Earle Coates. Published in Poems (1898) and Poems (1916) Volume II.