HONOR, a poem

DIVINE abstraction, shadowy image, dream
     More vital than substantial shapes made strong
     By all the tireless energies of wrong,—
Who should deny thy being would blaspheme
The power that made thy loveliness supreme,
     Lending thee accents of auroral song
     To comfort those who unto thee belong,
Though they go down to dark Cocytus' stream.

Patient as Time art thou, eternal one!
     Yet who may change thy judgments—or destroy?
The conqueror whom wily Egypt won
Found with life's honeyed draught a bitter blent;
     And Hector, fallen by the walls of Troy,
Looked up, and saw thy face, and was content.

"Honor" by Florence Earle Coates. Published in The Smart Set (May 1908), Lyrics of Life (1909) and Poems (1916) Volume II.