A giant force has vanished. One who fought
For Truth and calmly faced Truth's deadliest foes;
Who, when all France was silent, grandly arose
And slew crowned Falsehood with the sword of Thought;
Who home from exile tortured Dreyfus brought
And bade the huge unnameable grim woes
Of him the saddest of all exiles close;
Who for one soul supreme redemption wrought:
He, Zola, passes forth to lands unknown.
And, even as Hugo left the whole world weak
And friendless for a moment, so it seemed,
When round about him Death's strange starlight gleamed,
So now we feel unutterably alone.
Truth silenced, every paltry liar may speak.