What every man in arms should wish to be?“
—Character of the Happy Warrior” by William Wordsworth, 1806

Two days ago, I hosted the Darden Military Association of students at our home for dinner. It’s an annual event that my wife and I hold to thank our veterans for their service and to reflect a bit on what that service teaches us. In some brief remarks, I read from William Wordsworth’s poem.

Wordsworth composed “Character of the Happy Warrior” following the death of Horatio Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar in 1806. Presumably, Wordsworth was describing Nelson’s character. But the attributes are instructive to us all; the character he describes is one that I see in many of Darden’s veteran students. Consider the attributes that Wordsworth cites: a “generous spirit;” an “inward light”; a diligent learner with a “natural instinct to discern;” controls fear; is self-knowledgeable; “owes to virtue every triumph that he knows;” keeps faithful; and “finds comfort in himself and in his cause.” I hear from students, faculty, staff, alumni, and recruiters an appreciation for qualities such as these that they see in our veteran students.

But are our veterans, America’s returning warriors, happy? The transition from military to civilian life is a hard road. This morning, Will Kohlbrenner (D’15) gave a remarkable talk at First Coffee on the plight of many returning veterans. Among other details he cited were that

  • (75%) of veterans are unable to translate skills from the military to civilian life.
  • 30.2% of veterans aged 18 to 24 are unemployed as of 2011 BLS data.
  • 968,000 veterans (age 18 to 64) had been in poverty within the last year in 2010.
  • Over half of all homeless veterans are African-American, despite the fact that only 11% of the total veteran population are African-American.

Will noted that a few companies are working on not just hiring vets, but investing in them and training them, including Amazon, Troops 2 Roughnecks (trains service members to work on oil rigs), GE Junior Officer Leadership Program, and Prudential Financial. John Strangfeld (D’77), Prudential’s Chairman and CEO, has been a leader in the developmentof the business world’s response to the plight of returning veterans. Additionally, two Second Year students, JT Pruitt and Steven Benz, are working with Prudential and John Strangfeld in writing a case detailing this program.

Darden is committed to working with returning veterans, and indeed, with people from many fields who have volunteered to put themselves in a difficult way for the sake of others—these include students from the Peace Corps, Teach for America, law enforcement, NGOs, and public service. They all inspire us with the attributes of the happy warrior.

Character of the Happy Warrior

William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

WHO is the happy Warrior? Who is he

What 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 childish 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 power 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 humankind,

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, whereso’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

Forever, 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

Whom every Man in arms should wish to be.