The Sword of Truth

So when they come to write my hagiography;*

What will they say?
That I was not a saint or leader of a great house
They will say
Here is the story of an unremarked man
And see the briefness of its pages
But you my love will know
The true spirit of the man
Cannot be writ from a strangers memories
And the sword of truth sheathed and unused
Is all the blunter for cutting out falsehood

*Hagiography (pron: hageeography) (from the Greek (h)ağios “holy” or “saint”) and graphēin (“to write”), refers to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, although less common.