Defeated by Sophie Jewett - Poem for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A

The Englewood Review of Books curates a weekly series of classic and contemporary poems that resonate with the themes of the lectionary readings. Here is one of the poems for this coming Sunday (More poems for Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A can be found here)

This poem was selected to accompany one of the
lectionary readings for the coming week, Psalm 103:1-13

Defeated
Sophie Jewett

When the last fight is lost, the last sword broken;
The last call sounded, the last order spoken;
When from the field where braver hearts lie sleeping,
Faint, and athirst, and blinded, I come creeping,
With not one waving shred of palm to bring you,
With not one splendid battle-song to sing you,
O Love, in my dishonor and defeat,
Your measureless compassion will be sweet.

*** This poem is in the public domain,
and may be read in a live-streamed worship service.

Sophie Jewett (1861-1909) also known under the pseudonym Ellen Burroughs, was an American lyric poet, translator, and professor at Wellesley College. Jewett was born in Moravia, New York, one of four children of Charles Carroll Jewett, a doctor, and Ellen Ransom (Burroughs) Jewett. Her mother died when she was 7 and her father when she was 9, after which she was raised by an uncle. Much of her poetry contains LGBTQ themes. (via Wikipedia)