WILL.

1.

O WELL for him whose will is strong!

He suffers, but he will not suffer long;

He suffers, but he cannot suffer wrong:

For him nor moves the loud world's random mock,

Nor all Calamity's hugest waves confound,

Who seems a promontory of rock,

That, compass'd round with turbulent sound,

In middle ocean meets the surging shock,

Tempest-buffeted, citadel-crown'd.

2.

But ill for him who, bettering not with time,

Corrupts the strength of heaven-descended Will,

And ever weaker grows thro' acted crime,

Or seeming-genial venial fault,

Recurring and suggesting still!

He seems as one whose footsteps halt,

Toiling in immeasurable sand,

And o'er a weary sultry land,

Far beneath a blazing vault,

Sown in a wrinkle of the monstrous hill,

The city sparkles like a grain of salt.

THE

CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE.

1.

HALF a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,

All in the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

"Forward, the Light Brigade!

Charge for the guns!" he said :

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

168

THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE.

2.

"Forward, the Light Brigade !"

Was there a man dismay'd?

Not tho' the soldier knew

Some one had blunder'd :

Their's not to make reply,

Their's not to reason why,

Their's but to do and die :

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

3.

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon in front of them

Volley'd and thunder'd ;

Storm'd at with shot and shell,

Boldly they rode and well,