Forget them, our comrades, the true and the noble,
Who marched with the foremost in liberty's van,
Who pled for the cause of the weak and downtrodden,
Who spoke the great word of the freedom of man?

Forget them, our brothers, the sweet and the tender,
Who lived for the sake of a world that was blind,
Who recked not the slander, nor heeded the peril,
Secure in the truth, and the love of their kind?

Forget them, our heroes, the strong and the fearless,
Who faced the wild beast in its innermost lair,
Who blenched not, though lashed by the rage of the tempest,
Who taught slaves and tyrants what freemen can dare?

Forget them, our martyrs, the grand and the peerless,
Who mastered the scaffold, and conquered the grave,
Who murdered are living, and dying are deathless,
Whose memory lives in the hearts of the brave?

Forget them? When hopeless and shrouded in darkness,
When heavy the burden and long the delay,
They brighten the blackness, and speak from the silence,
And point through the clouds to the dawn of the day.

Forget them? By liberty scorned and dishonored,
By justice entangled in sophistry's net,
By truth doomed to drudge in the service of falsehood,
By love turned to hatred — we will not forget!

Forget them? When lost to the meaning of manhood,
And deaf to the cause which inspired us of yore,
We crouch with the craven or turn with the traitor,
Then we may forget — for they know us no more!

Forget them? Humanity's triumph approaches;
The harvest is white from the seed they have sown
Forget them? Ye cannot, ye sons of the future;
When freedom is victor, they come to their own!