IN the blossom-land Japan Somewhere thus an old song ran. Said a warrior to a smith "Hammer me a sword forthwith. Make the blade Light as wind on water laid. Make it long As the wheat at harvest song. Supple, swift As a snake, without rift, Full of lightnings, thousand-eyed! Smooth as silken cloth and thin As the web that spiders spin. And merciless as pain, and cold." "On the hilt what shall be told?" "On the sword's hilt, my good man," Said the warrior of Japan, "Trace for me A running lake, a flock of sheep And one who sings her child to sleep." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A THOUGHT by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES A SONG OF APPLE-BLOOM by GORDON BOTTOMLEY EURYDICE TO ORPHEUS by ROBERT BROWNING WORDS ARE NEVER ENOUGH by CHARLES TORY BRUCE THE WANDERER: 5. IN HOLLAND: FATIMA by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON TO THE BEAUTIFUL ELIZA J - N by ROBERT BURNS ON THE EPICUREAN, STOIC, AND CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY by JOHN BYROM |