The poem
He was our leader and our guide; He was our saviour and our star. We walked in friendship by his side, Yet set him where our heroes are.
He taught disdain of fame and wealth; With courage he inspired our youth; He preached the purity of health, And held aloft the torch of truth.
He bade us battle for the Right, And led us in the carnage grim; He was to us a living light, And like a God we worshiped him.
He raised us from the grievous gloom, And brimmed our hearts with radiant cheer; And then he climbed up to his room, And . . . cut his throat from ear to ear.
Let us not judge his seeming lapse; His secret soul we could not see; He smiled and left us, and perhaps Death was his crowning victory.