Horatius

Thomas Babington Macaulay · Stanza XXVII

Then out spake brave Horatius,
 The Captain of the Gate:
“To every man upon this earth
 Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
 Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
 And the temples of his Gods”

— Thomas Babington Macaulay, Lays of Ancient Rome (1842).

Read the full poem.