Lines 1 through 4 establish that the speaker and his allies are under attack. The speaker urges his allies not to give up without a fight. The next four lines draw on the emotions of the allies to die honorably. Lines 9 through 12 contain the speaker's rallying cry to his allies. He calls on them to fight back even though they have no chance of winning. The last two lines can be summed up like so: "Even though we're going to die, we are going to fight like men."