 | Stones from The Quarry |  |
318
PEN VERSUS SWORD.
Poets the many dangers which besetThe man who meddles with cold iron swell
In chorus; I will the far greater tell
That threat man, pen, not sword in hand, and wet
With ink, not blood; should he the risk forget
Of pen and parchment, and a “rat not smell,”
Caught in the legal trap, and kept, fed well,
Like confidence in others to beget.
The letters of thy honourable name
Like a Phylactery keep; for, once lost, this
Will bring thee, like “The Shadowless Man,” to shame;
To find thy “name” the same as thy self is,
As he his “shadow.” Good name and good fame
Substance and shadow are: miss one, both miss.
| Stones from The Quarry | |