Your ShelfYour Projects

The Broken Sword

25%

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · May 30, 1912

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 22.

Read the full edition

The Broken Sword

By Edmund Rowland Sill

THIS I beheld, or dreamed it in a dream: There spread a cloud of dust along the 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 coward 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 snapped, 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. He 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 foemen down, And saved a great cause that heroic day. — Edmund Rowland Sill.