AND HE SAID FIGHT ON
mvt 5 from “Fire Flowers”

Time and its ally, Dark Disarmament,
Have compassed me about,
Have massed their armies, and on battle bent
My forces put to rout;
But though I fight alone, and fall, and die,
Talk terms of Peace? Not I.
(Tennyson)

They war upon my fortress, and their guns
Are shattering its walls;
My army plays the cowards’ part, and runs,
Pierced by a thousand balls;
They call for my surrender. I reply,
‘Give quarter now? Not I.’

They’ve shot my flag to ribbons, but in rents
It floats above the height;
Their ensign shall not crown my battlements
While I can stand and fight.
I fling defiance at them as I cry,
‘Capitulate? Not I.’ 

Emily Pauline Johnson (1861-1913)
Canadian poet of the Mohawk Nation