Classic Poem

What if we have not prospered
In ways that the world hath nursed?
What if was not our watchword:
“Self and again self first”.

Did not our pulses quiver
Because of the spectre gaunt,
Inciting the needy ever
To sin 'neath the goad of want.

To them was enforced starvation
The only incentive known,
To us was determination
From desperation grown.

So left we the broad Savannah,
By feet of the proud ones prest,
To carry the nameless banner
That knoweth not crown nor crest.

And what if there's no returning
To us from a foredoomed fight,
If only our torches burning
Shew plain on the guide post “Right”.