Like most of us, I’ve usually see this stanza, from a poem by Macaulay; certainly, it has been often quoted in recent weeks, with regard to the valor of the Ukrainians defending their nation:
Then out spake courageous Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
“To each man upon this earth
Dying cometh quickly or late.
And the way can man die higher
Than going through fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods.”
It is stirring, after all, however I’ve usually discovered it a bit distanced from us due to the final two traces: My sense is that we do not care as a lot as did the Romans concerning the resting locations of our ancestors, and people of us who’re spiritual principally (not totally, however principally) do not view any explicit temple with nice reverence.
Extra broadly, the final two traces appear to be about preventing for honor or custom, not for residing people who find themselves beloved in the way in which we love the residing. It is easy, after all, to view the final two traces as a stand-in for compatriots, pals, household, and the like; nevertheless it takes a little bit of conceptual broadening.
However simply right this moment I got here throughout the next four lines; let me quote once more the primary stanza, however this time adopted by these traces:
Then out spake courageous Horatius,
The Captain of the gate:
“To each man upon this earth
Dying cometh quickly or late.
And the way can man die higher
Than going through fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods,
And for the tender mom
Who dandled him to relaxation,
And for the spouse who nurses
His child at her breast.”
A barely completely different impact, I believe. (There’s extra to the poem, however I do not discover it fairly as hanging.)
