Page:The Muse in Arms, Osborn (ed), 1917.djvu/177

Rh Like a wild bee, flies a sure line

For the forehead of the Philistine,

Then ... but there comes a brazen clink,

And quicker than a man can think

Goliath's shield parries each cast,

Clang! clang! and clang! was David's last.

Scorn blazes in the Giant's eye

Towering unhurt six cubits high.

Says foolish David, "Damn your shield,

And damn my sling, but I'll not yield."

He takes his staff of Mamre oak,

A knotted shepherd-staff that's broke

The skull of many a wolf and fox

Come filching lambs from Jesse's flocks.

Loud laughs Goliath, and that laugh

Can scatter chariots like blown chaff

To rout: but David, calm and brave,

Holds his ground, for God will save.

Steel crosses wood, a flash, and oh!

Shame for Beauty's overthrow!

(God's eyes are dim, His ears are shut.)

One cruel backhand sabre cut—

"I'm hit, I'm killed," young David cries,

Throws blindly forward, chokes ... and dies.

And look, spike-helmeted, grey, grim,

Goliath straddles over him. .