Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A BROKEN SWORD, by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON


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A BROKEN SWORD, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: The shopman shambled from the doorway out
Last Line: Its broken blade.
Alternate Author Name(s): Dobson, Austin
Subject(s): Swords


(TO A. L.)

THE shopman shambled from the doorway out
And twitched it down --
Snapped in the blade! 'Twas scarcely dear, I doubt,
At half-a-crown.

Useless enough! And yet can still be seen,
In letters clear,
Traced on the metal's rusty damaskeen --
'Povr Paruenyr.'

Whose was it once? -- Who manned it once in hope
His fate to gain?
Who was it dreamed his oyster-world should ope
To this -- in vain?

Maybe with some stout Argonaut it sailed
The Western Seas;
Maybe but to some paltry Nym availed
For toasting cheese!

Or decked by Beauty on some morning lawn
With silken knot,
Perchance, ere night, for Church and King 'twas drawn --
Perchance 'twas not!

Who knows -- or cares? To-day, 'mid foils and gloves
Its hilt depends,
Flanked by the favours of forgotten loves, --
Remembered friends; --

And oft its legend lends, in hours of stress,
A word to aid;
Or like a warning comes, in puffed success,
Its broken blade.





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