Source identified1
Image design Linen
Read & copy
“But he is truly brave who faces death Within his chamber, at a sudden call, At night, when no man sees.”
Meaning & context
Alcestis contrasts visible battlefield heroism with private courage that receives no audience or public praise.
Source details
Admetus, published in Admetus and Other Poems (1871) and represented by Project Gutenberg #3295. Alcestis speaks while challenging those unwilling to sacrifice themselves for Admetus. The excerpt stops before the poem’s explicit self-sacrificial conclusion and is preserved as classical-myth character speech, not an endorsement of self-harm or Lazarus autobiography.