Unsubduded ~ Poem by S. E. Kiser

  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.

S.E. Kiser.