I was a proud man, David, very virtuous,
Or, in fairness to myself, desiring virtue,
Truly desiring it, I may say that. 
And yet even in that desire there moved
A lie, for I knew the virtue of my desire
Was something tainted.  No—­I knew it not,
But that other self walking beside me knew it,
And whispered, I knew, a thing that I would not hear. 
Always it whispered, as I stood alone,
I said, in subtle thought among all Israel. 
God had spoken to me, David, that the Philistine
Was evil, evil, that was all God said,
And bade me strike as a man by God assured. 
But the man to whom God spoke I put aside,
The still self walking, whispering, in the shadow. 
And I, the Jonathan of daily light,
Tempered the word of God, I tempered it—­
I who should be God’s outcast doing so. 
I counted evil twenty different ways,
And none of them plain evil.  I diced with God,
And the dice fell as often to my hand,
It seemed, as His, but falling so the whisper
Was ever shadowed at my ear, unheard. 
And ever as this new intelligence,
This pride of thought, crept over me and filled
My dawn and noon and sleep, a hunger grew,
A dreadful hunger for that self denied,
And every word I spoke for righteousness
Turned bitter on my lips, because I knew
That every word was righteousness undone. 
Such was the man this morning when you came,
Who from the king’s tent watched you, David.  Then
Change and completion and I know not what
Of heavenly fulfilment fell upon me. 
Not from myself, nor of my own devising,
But marvellously spoken in a space
Of golden light that glowed about the form
Of a boy standing in my father’s tent. 
Quite suddenly the thing I lacked was there,
The shadow whispering at my side had gone
And stood there bodied in you, David, brother,
O dear young shepherd from your sheepfolds called—­
Nay Jonathan myself it was there standing,
Or barren branches of myself in flower,
My jailored thought flooded with light of song. 
And in that moment nothing was between
Your soul and mine, and knowing you, I loved,
Since love is understanding, and must come
When mind looks on the presence of very mind. 
I loved you, David, and I love, and ever—­
Because my mind, even in one day’s passing,
Has learnt you as no years could better learn—­
My love is fixed upon you.  And, moreover,
Since from this hour I must for ever know
Some element of me lodged sole in you,
Some certainty in you alone to be
Among my weeds the patient husbandman,
I must in your love prosper or not at all. 
Now therefore, David, let a covenant be
Between us from this day, for the heart knows.”