Shone like a burning brand

A shadowy sword for swordless fields of fight,

Wrought only for such lord

As so may wield the sword

That all things ill be put to fear and flight

Even at the flash and sweep and gleam

Of one swift stroke beheld but in a shuddering dream.

5.

Like the sun's rays that blind the night's wild beasts

The sword of song shines as the swordsman sings;

From the west wind's verge even to the arduous east's

The splendour of the shadow that it flings

Makes fire and storm in heaven above the feasts

Of men fulfilled with food of evil things;

Strikes dumb the lying and hungering lips of priests,

Smites dead the slaying and ravening hands of kings;

Turns dark the lamp's hot light,

And turns the darkness bright

As with the shadow of dawn's reverberate wings;

And far before its way

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