Do not mourn still your generation’s blood,

And face rubbed bare by reasonable fears,

And unintentional tears

That fall and are lost. Better to chew the cud

Of ignorant earlier days (Forgive us, time)

Before experience preached the certainty

That what will be will be,

Telling us that we shall commit our crime.

Past odds and ends sustain us. We can suck

Courage from buried bravery’s dear downfall,

Learn from forgotten fools to chance our luck

And cut our losses, piously recall

Those who believed and did not understand,

And built in faith and folly in this ancient land.