Classic Poem

Like nightly watchers from a palace-tower,
In hope, and faith, and patience strong, to wait
The beacons on the hills, which should relate
How some fenced city of deceit and power
Had fallen—ye have stood for many an hour,
Till your first hope's high movements must be dead;
And if with new ye have not cheered and fed
Your bosoms, dim despair may be your dower.
Yet not for all—though yet no fire may crest
The mountains, or light up their beacons sere—
Your eminent commission so far wrong,
Or so much flatter the oppressors' rest,
As to give o'er your watching; for so long
As ye shall hope, 'tis reason they must fear.