HEROISM.

 It takes great strength to train

To modern service your ancestral brain;

To lift the weight of the unnumbered years

Of dead men’s habits, methods, and ideas;

15To hold that back with one hand, and support

With the other the weak steps of a new thought.

It takes great strength to bring your life up square

With your accepted thought, and hold it there;

Resisting the inertia¹ that drags back

From new attempts to the old habit’s track.

It is so easy to drift back, to sink;

So hard to live abreast² of what you think!

It takes great strength to live where you belong

When other people think that you are wrong;

People you love, and who love you, and whose

Approval is a pleasure you would choose.

To bear this pressure and succeed at length

In living your belief—well, it takes strength.

And courage too. But what does courage mean

Save strength to help you face a pain foreseen?

Courage to undertake this lifelong strain

Of setting yours against your grandsire’s brain;

Dangerous risk of walking lone³ and free

Out of the easy paths that used to be,

And the fierce pain of hurting those we love

When love meets truth, and truth must ride above?

But the best courage man has ever shown

Is daring to cut loose and think alone.

Dark as the unlit chambers⁴ of clear space

Where light shines back from no reflecting face.

16Our sun’s wide glare, our heaven’s shining blue,

We owe to fog and dust they fumble⁵ through;

And our rich wisdom that we treasure so

Shines from the thousand things that we don’t know.

But to think new—it takes a courage grim

As led Columbus over the world’s rim⁶.

To think it cost some courage. And to go—

Try it. It taxes every power you know.

It takes great love to stir a human heart

To live beyond the others and apart.

A love that is not shallow, is not small,

Is not for one, or two, but for them all.

Love that can wound love, for its higher need;

Love that can leave love though the heart may bleed;

Love that can lose love; family, and friend;

Yet steadfastly⁷ live, loving, to the end.

A love that asks no answer, that can live

Moved by one burning, deathless force,—to give.

Love, strength, and courage. Courage, strength, and love,

The heroes of all time are built thereof.

1 inertia   

adj.惰性，惯性，懒惰，迟钝

参考例句：

• We had a feeling of inertia in the afternoon.下午我们感觉很懒。
• Inertia carried the plane onto the ground.飞机靠惯性着陆。

2 abreast   

adv.并排地；跟上(时代)的步伐，与…并进地

参考例句：

• She kept abreast with the flood of communications that had poured in.她及时回复如雪片般飞来的大批信件。
• We can't keep abreast of the developing situation unless we study harder.我们如果不加强学习，就会跟不上形势。

3 lone   

adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的

参考例句：

• A lone sea gull flew across the sky.一只孤独的海鸥在空中飞过。
• She could see a lone figure on the deserted beach.她在空旷的海滩上能看到一个孤独的身影。

4 chambers   

n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅

参考例句：

• The body will be removed into one of the cold storage chambers. 尸体将被移到一个冷冻间里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mr Chambers's readable book concentrates on the middle passage: the time Ransome spent in Russia. Chambers先生的这本值得一看的书重点在中间：Ransome在俄国的那几年。 来自互联网

5 fumble   

vi.笨拙地用手摸、弄、接等，摸索

参考例句：

• His awkwardness made him fumble with the key.由于尴尬不安，他拿钥匙开锁时显得笨手笨脚。
• He fumbled his one-handed attempt to light his cigarette.他笨拙地想用一只手点燃香烟。

6 rim   

n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界

参考例句：

• The water was even with the rim of the basin.盆里的水与盆边平齐了。
• She looked at him over the rim of her glass.她的目光越过玻璃杯的边沿看着他。

7 steadfastly   

adv.踏实地，不变地；岿然；坚定不渝

参考例句：

• So he sat, with a steadfastly vacant gaze, pausing in his work. 他就像这样坐着，停止了工作，直勾勾地瞪着眼。 来自英汉文学 - 双城记
• Defarge and his wife looked steadfastly at one another. 德伐日和他的妻子彼此凝视了一会儿。 来自英汉文学 - 双城记