THIS was the shepherd boy who slung the stone And killed the giant; sunshine and the wind Had given his harp so clear and strange a tone That all the world forgave him when he sinned. The gently formed and stately Greek who stood On the Piazza, throned in classic pride, Was not the boy who roamed through field and wood, Fighting and singing on the bright hillside. Swift on the mountains, swift to save or slay; Eager and passionate and lithe of form; Fighting and singing, pausing but to pray, Unto his God of music and of storm. The bare hillside and sharp rocks castellate Rang with the clanging of his bow; Where in the dawn of the world's love and hate, He found and would not slay his sleeping foe. No sorrowful shades of the evil years Falls in the boy's face of the wood and wild; Vanished are rags and lust and passionate tears; The King is dead, immortal stands the child. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE WINDMILL by ROBERT SEYMOUR BRIDGES THE BIRD OF PARADISE by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES THIS COMPOST: 2. by WALT WHITMAN DANSE RUSSE by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS EMBLEMS OF LOVE: 27. THE POWER OF ELOQUENCE IN LOVE by PHILIP AYRES TWELVE SONNETS: 12. AFTER BATTLE by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) THE LAST MAN: CONCEALED JOY by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES A NIGHT FANCY by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE HINC LACHRIMAE; OR THE AUTHOR TO AURORA: 11 by WILLIAM BOSWORTH |