The Hour is Come [poem by Louisa Lawson]

[Editor: This poem by Louisa Lawson was published in “The Lonely Crossing” and Other Poems (1905).]

The Hour is Come.

How did she fight? She fought well.
How did she light? Ah, she fell.
Why did she fall? God, who knows all,
Only can tell.

Those she was fighting for — they
Surely would go to her? Nay!
What of her pain! Theirs is the gain.
Ever the way.

Will they not help her to rise
If there is death in her eyes?
Can you not see? She made them free.
What if she dies?

Can we not help her? Oh, no!
In her good fight it is so
That all who work never must shirk
Suff’ring and woe.

But she’ll not ever lie down —
On her head, in the dust, is a crown
Jewelled and bright, under whose light
She’ll rise alone.

Source:
Louisa Lawson, “The Lonely Crossing” and Other Poems, Sydney: Dawn Office, [1905], pp. 7-8

Editor’s notes:
nay = an archaic form of “no”; however, it is still sometimes used regarding voting (e.g. to vote yea or nay), in formal circumstances, in some dialects (e.g. in the north of England), and as a substitute for “no” when some emphasis is desired

suff’ring = (vernacular) suffering

[Editor: Changed “Their’s is the gain” to “Theirs is the gain” (note: “Their’s is the gain” also appears in the 1909 edition, p. 7).]