Opportunity
By Edward Roland Sill
This I beheld, or dreamed it in a dream: --
There spread a cloud of dust along a plain;
And underneath the cloud, or in it, raged
A furious battle, and men yelled, and swords
Shocked upon swords and shields. A prince's banner
Wavered, then staggered backward, hemmed by foes.
A craven hung along the battle's edge
And thought, "Had I a sword of keener steel--
That blue blade that the king's son bears, -- but this
Blunt thing!" he snapt and flung it from his hand,
And lowering crept away and left the field.
Then came the king's son, wounded, sore bestead,
And weaponless, and saw the broken sword,
Hilt-buried in the dry and trodden sand,
And ran and snatched it, and with battle-shout
Lifted afresh he hewed his enemy down,
And saved a great cause that heroic day.
I had to decipher the meaning of that poem in English class earlier this year, and it has been my favorite poem ever since. It reminded me a little bit of POTCO and all of the fighting that occurs, so I decided to share it on the forum.
I have a few other poems in my notebook but none are as great as I believe this one to be. I thought others may have enjoyed it as I did. I apologize for any misspellings, I'm a terrible speller.
FTF!!!!!
