Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ON AN ANCIENT LANCE, HANGING IN AN ARMOURY, by HORACE SMITH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON AN ANCIENT LANCE, HANGING IN AN ARMOURY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Once in the breezy coppice didst thou dance
Last Line: And with his mouldered eyes again replace.
Alternate Author Name(s): Smith, Horatio
Subject(s): Birds; Nightingales; Past; Silence


ONCE in the breezy coppice didst thou dance,
And nightingales amid thy foliage sang;
Formed by man's cruel art into a lance,
Oft hast thou pierced, (the while the welkin rang
With trump and drum, shoutings and battle clang,)
Some foeman's heart. Pride, pomp, and circumstance,
Have left thee, now, and thou dost silent hang,
From age to age, in deep and dusty trance.
What is thy change to ours? These gazing eyes,
To earth reverting, may again arise
In dust to settle on the self-same space;
Dust, which some offspring, yet unborn, who tries
To poise thy weight, may with his hand efface,
And with his mouldered eyes again replace.





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