Remember him who battled here,
What was his living character?
To friends an heart for ever filled
With love and with compassion brave;
To foes a power never stilled
In pushing vengeance to the grave;
Where is his spirit gone now, O where?
What of his ten grand paces here
Whose motion was a perfect sphere?
To friends a making unafraid,
A sure defence, a wall of glass.
To foes a hidden trap well laid
To catch them stalking through the grass;
Where is he walking now, O where?
What of his power who is here
Enclosed within the sepulchre?
To friends an eager sword of joy,
A shield to nestle underneath.
To foes whose love is to destroy,
A stumbling block, a hidden death;
Where is his power gone now, O where?
What of his eye that floated here
Like sky-born dewy gossamer?
To friends the ever-sought desire,
The hope achieved, the loving cup;
To foes an unassaulted fire,
A furnace withering them up.
Where is he shining now, O where?
What of the head that breathed so here
And the hair beloved so, is it sere;
To friends a shadow shedding stars,
Like blessings, from the upper deep;
To foes a poisoned tree that mars
Men's lives thereunder laid asleep.
Where does it blossom now, O where?
He lives, is living everywhere,
Where human hearts are, he is there.
To friends a soul of certainty
That love though lost is more than none.
To foes an inability
To say, "We slew him, we alone,
His soul is here, we slew him here."