OLD Sword! tho' dim and rusted Be now thy sheeny blade, Thy glitt'ring edge encrusted With cankers Time hath made; Yet once around thee swell'd the cry Of triumph's fierce delight, The shoutings of the victory, The thunders of the fight! Tho' age hath past upon thee With still corroding breath, Yet once stream'd redly on thee The purpling tide of death: What time amid the war of foes The dastard's cheek grew pale, As through the feudal field arose The ringing of the mail. Old Sword! what arm hath wielded Thy richly gleaming brand, 'Mid lordly forms who shielded The maidens of their land? And who hath clov'n his foes in wrath With thy puissant fire, And scatter'd in his perilous path The victims of his ire? Old Sword! whose fingers clasp'd thee Around thy carved hilt? And with that hand which grasp'd thee What heroe's blood was split; When fearlessly, with open hearts, And lance to lance oppos'd, Beneath the shade of barbed darts The dark-ey'd warriors clos'd? Old Sword! I would not burnish Thy venerable rust, Nor sweep away the tarnish Of darkness and of dust! Lie there, in slow and still decay, Unfam'd in olden rhyme, The relic of a former day, A wreck of ancient time! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HOHENLINDEN by THOMAS CAMPBELL THE INDIGNANT CAPTAIN OF INDUSTRY by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS THE NATURAL FIRE by CLIFFORD ALLEN ROSALIND'S SCROLL by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING REMEMBRANCE by MARGARET E. BRUNER |