O the grey, grey company 
   Of the pallid dawn! 
O the ghostly faces, 
   Ashen-like and drawn! 
The Lord's lone sentinels 
   Dotted down the years, 
The little grey company 
   Before the pioneers. 

Dreaming of Utopias 
   Ere the time was ripe, 
They awoke to scorning, 
   The jeering and the strife. 
Dreaming of millenniums 
   In a world of wars, 
They awoke to shudder 
   At a flaming Mars. 

Never was a Luther 
   But a Huss was first -- 
A fountain unregarded 
   In the primal thirst. 
Never was a Newton 
   Crowned and honoured well, 
But first, alone, Galileo 
   Wasted in a cell. 

In each other's faces 
   Looked the pioneers; 
Drank the wine of courage 
   All their battle years. 
For their weary sowing 
   Through the world wide, 
Green they saw the harvest 
   Ere the day they died. 

But the grey, grey company 
   Stood every man alone 
In the chilly dawnlight, 
   Scarcely had they known 
Ere the day they perished, 
   That their beacon-star 
Was not glint of marsh-light 
   In the shadows far. 

The brave white witnesses 
   To the truth within 
Took the dart of folly, 
   Took the jeer of sin; 
Crying "Follow, follow, 
   Back to Eden gate!" 
They trod the Polar desert, 
   Met a desert fate. 

Be laurel to the victor, 
   And roses to the fair, 
And asphodel Elysian 
   Let the hero wear; 
But lay the maiden lilies 
   Upon their narrow biers -- 
The lone grey company 
   Before the pioneers.