- Who is the happy Warrior? Who is he
- That every man in arms should wish to be?
- —It is the generous Spirit, who, when brought
- Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought
- Upon the plan that pleased his boyish thought:
- Whose high endeavours are an inward light
- That makes the path before him always bright:
- Who, with a natural instinct to discern
- What knowledge can perform, is diligent to learn;
- Abides by this resolve, and stops not there,
- But makes his moral being his prime care;
- Who, doomed to go in company with Pain,
- And Fear, and Bloodshed, miserable train!
- Turns his necessity to glorious gain;
- In face of these doth exercise a power
- Which is our human nature's highest dower;
- Controls them and subdues, transmutes, bereaves
- Of their bad influence, and their good receives:
- By objects, which might force the soul to abate
- Her feeling, rendered more compassionate;
- Is placable—because occasions rise
- So often that demand such sacrifice;
- More skilful in self-knowledge, even more pure,
- As tempted more; more able to endure,
- As more exposed to suffering and distress;
- Thence, also, more alive to tenderness.
- —’Tis he whose law is reason; who depends
- Upon that law as on the best of friends;
- Whence, in a state where men are tempted still
- To evil for a guard against worse ill,
- And what in quality or act is best
- Doth seldom on a right foundation rest,
- He labours good on good to fix, and owes
- To virtue every triumph that he knows:
- —Who, if he rise to station of command,
- Rises by open means; and there will stand
- On honourable terms, or else retire,
- And in himself possess his own desire;
- Who comprehends his trust, and to the same
- Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim;
- And therefore does not stoop, nor lie in wait
- For wealth, or honours, or for worldly state;
- Whom they must follow; on whose head must fall,
- Like showers of manna, if they come at all:
- Whose powers shed round him in the common strife,
- Or mild concerns of ordinary life,
- A constant influence, a peculiar grace;
- But who, if he be called upon to face
- Some awful moment to which Heaven has joined
- Great issues, good or bad for human kind,
- Is happy as a Lover; and attired
- With sudden brightness, like a Man inspired;
- And, through the heat of conflict, keeps the law
- In calmness made, and sees what he foresaw;
- Or if an unexpected call succeed,
- Come when it will, is equal to the need:
- —He who, though thus endued as with a sense
- And faculty for storm and turbulence,
- Is yet a Soul whose master-bias leans
- To homefelt pleasures and to gentle scenes;
- Sweet images! which, wheresoe'er he be,
- Are at his heart; and such fidelity
- It is his darling passion to approve;
- More brave for this, that he hath much to love:—
- ’Tis, finally, the Man, who, lifted high,
- Conspicuous object in a Nation’s eye,
- Or left unthought-of in obscurity,—
- Who, with a toward or untoward lot,
- Prosperous or adverse, to his wish or not—
- Plays, in the many games of life, that one
- Where what he most doth value must be won:
- Whom neither shape of danger can dismay,
- Nor thought of tender happiness betray;
- Who, not content that former worth stand fast,
- Looks forward, persevering to the last,
- From well to better, daily self-surpast:
- Who, whether praise of him must walk the earth
- For ever, and to noble deeds give birth,
- Or he must fall, to sleep without his fame,
- And leave a dead unprofitable name—
- Finds comfort in himself and in his cause;
- And, while the mortal mist is gathering, draws
- His breath in confidence of Heaven’s applause:
- This is the happy Warrior; this is He
- That every Man in arms should wish to be.
