Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE BLACKSMITH, by WILLIAM WATSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE BLACKSMITH, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Tis the tamer of iron
Last Line: Whence issued the world.
Alternate Author Name(s): Watson, John William
Subject(s): Blacksmiths; Fire; Furnaces; Sin; Kilns


'TIS the Tamer of Iron,
Who smites from the prime,
And the song of whose smiting
Hath thundered through time.

Like a mighty Enchanter
Mid demons he stands --
Mid Terrors infernal,
The slaves of his hands.

As a pine-bough in winter,
All fringed with wild hair,
His arm too is shaggy,
His arm too is bare.

And the bars on his anvil,
They struggle and groan
Like a sin being fought with,
That's bred in the bone;

But against them he knits his
Invincible thews,
The Wrestler, the Hero,
The Man That Subdues.

As a crag looking down on
The floods in their ire,
He looms through the spray of
His fountains of fire.

Is he human and mortal,
With frailties like mine,
Or a demigod rather,
Of lineage divine?

For the dread things of Nature
Crouch low in his gaze:
The Fire doth his bidding;
The Iron obeys.

He is Voland, great Voland,
Whose furnaces roared
As he fashioned for Siegfried
The wonderful Sword.

"Whatsoever is mighty,"
He sang in his glee,
"Twixt hammer and anvil
Is fashioned by me."

And he made the bright blade from
His rapture and joy,
Being one with the Gods who
Create and destroy:

The Gods at whose signal
The fuel was hurled
On the fires of the forges
Whence issued the World.





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