Close at my side a girl and boy

Fell firing, in the doorway here,

Collapsing with a strangled cheer

As on the very couch of joy,

And onward through a wall of fire

A thousand others rolled the surge,

And where a dozen men expire

A hundred myrmidons emerge—

As if the Christ, our Solar Sire,

Magnificent in their intent,

Returned the bloody way he went,

Of so much blood, of such desire,

And so much valour proudly spent,

To weld a single heart of fire.