They spoke it bravely, grimly, in their darkest hours of doubt;
They spoke it when their hope was low and when their strength gave out;
We heard it from the dying in those troubled days now gone,
And they breathed it as their slogan for the living: “Carry on!”
Now the days of strife are over, and the skies are fair again,
But those two brave words of courage on our lips should still remain;
In the trials which beset us and the cares we look upon,
To our dead we should be faithful—we have still to “carry on!”
“Carry on!” through storm and danger, “carry on” through dark despair,
“Carry on” through hurt and failure, “carry on” through grief and care;
'Twas the slogan they bequeathed us as they fell beside the way,
And for them and for our children, let us “carry on!” to-day.