"Fight for Right" is a song written by the English composer Edward Elgar

Edward Elgar

Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...

, with words taken from The Story of Sigurd the Volsung

The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs

The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs is an epic poem by William Morris, telling the tragic story of the Norse hero Sigmund, his son Sigurd and Sigurd's wife Gudrun...

by William Morris

William Morris

William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...

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It was published by Elkin in 1916, and dedicated to Members of the Fight for Right Movement.

There are nine introductory bars of music, followed by the first four lines of the poem sung Quasi recit. ad lib. The next two lines are accompanied a tempo, then repeated as a chorus.

Lyrics

FIGHT FOR RIGHT

Quasi recit. ad lib.

When thou hearest the fool rejoicing, and he saith, 'It is over and past,

And the wrong was better than right, and hate turns into love at the last,

And we strove for nothing at all, and the Gods are fallen asleep;

For so good is the world a-growing that the evil good shall reap:'

a tempo

Then loosen thy sword in the scabbard and settle the helm on thine head,

For men betrayèd are mighty, and great are the wrongfully dead.

Chorus

Then loosen thy sword in the scabbard and settle the helm on thine head,

For men betrayèd are mighty, and great are the wrongfully dead.

Recordings

• "The Unknown Elgar" includes "Fight for Right" performed by Stephen Holloway (bass), with Barry Collett (piano)