Classic Poem

The soldier to preserve his Country dies,
When'er in peril hangs its very life;
With ardent courage to the field he flies,
And mingles fearless in the fatal strife.
That Country safe; the ends, for which it lives,
Become the patriot statesman's highest goal;
To these his life and all he has he gives,
He lives not for a party, but the whole:
That all the rights of men may there enjoy,
That liberty of speech and thought may spread,
And every foe to freedom thus destroy;
Towards those great ends, with steadfast mind he's led,
For which the nation sprang at first to birth,
And gained a name and glory through the earth.