Just found this in my scratch buffer, and I don’t remember where I got it from:
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his gods
A little googling gave back Lays of Ancient Rome, Horatius. It’s one of those battle poems that always leaves me teary. Which is to say one of two*. The other being Charge of the Light Brigade:
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley’d & thunder’d
The metal of the 19th century. Rock on.
*update: I remembered another one right after I hit publish, Henry V, act 4 scene 3. Of course.