Unsubdued by S. E. Kiser

Poem from “Poems that Have Helped Me“

I have hoped, I have planned, I have striven,

To the will I have added the deed,

The best that was in me I’ve given,

I have prayed, but the gods would not heed.

I have dared and reached only disaster,

I have battled and broken my lance,

I am bruised by a pitiless master

That the weak and the timid call Chance.

I am old, I am bent, I am cheated

Of all that Youth urged me to win;

But name me not with the defeated,

To-morrow again, I begin.