Never despair

Never despair! let the feeble in spirit

Bow like the willow that stoops to the blast

Droop not in peril! 'tis manhood's true merit,

Nobody to struggle and hope to the last,

I When by the sunshine of fortune forsaken,

Faint sinks the heart of the feeble with fear

Stand like the oak of the forest, unshaken--

Never Despair Boys! Oh, Never Despair!

Never Despair! though adversity rages

Fiercely and fell as the surge on the shore.

Firm as the rock of the ocean for ages,

Stem the rude torrent till danger is o'er.

Fate with its whirl our joys may all sever--

True to ourselves we have nothing to fear,

Be this our hope and our anchor forever--

Never Despair! Boys! Never Despair!

by William Smith O'Brien

*These lines were sent to me by William Smith O'Brien, the evening of Monday, October 8, 1848, the day on which sentence of death was passed upon him.

--Thomas Francis Meagher. October 12, 1848.