<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Better to Die</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Better to die, where gallant men are dying,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Than to live on with them that basely fly;</p><p class="line">Better to fall, the soulless Fates defying,</p><p class="line">Than unassailed to wander vainly, trying</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To turn one's face from an accusing sky!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Days matter not, nor years to the undaunted;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To live is nothing, -- but to <em>nobly</em> live!</p><p class="line">The poorest visions of the honor-haunted</p><p class="line">Are better worth than pleasure-masks enchanted,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And they win life who life for others give.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The planets in their watchful course behold them --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To live is nothing, -- but to nobly live! --</p><p class="line">For though the Earth with mother-hands remold them,</p><p class="line">Though Ocean in his billowy arms enfold them,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">They are as gods, who life to others give!</p></div><p class="byline">-- Florence Earle Coates.<br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/> Pro Patria. </p></body></html> · Great War