262. Opportunity by Edward Rowland Sill
b'Sill read by Classic Poetry Aloud:\\nhttp://www.classicpoetryaloud.com/\\n\\nGiving voice to the poetry of the past.\\n\\n---------------------------------------------\\n\\nOpportunity\\nby Edward Rowland Sill(1841 \\u2013 1887)\\n\\nThis I beheld, or dreamed it in a dream:-\\nThere spread a cloud of dust along a plain;\\nAnd underneath the cloud, or in it, raged\\nA furious battle, and men yelled, and swords\\nShocked upon swords and shields. A prince\'s banner\\nWavered, then staggered backward, hemmed by foes.\\nA craven hung along the battle\'s edge,\\nAnd thought, "Had I a sword of keener steel-\\nThat blue blade that the king\'s son bears,-but this\\nBlunt thing-!" he snapt and flung it from his hand,\\nAnd lowering crept away and left the field.\\nThen came the king\'s son, wounded, sore bestead,\\nAnd weaponless, and saw the broken sword,\\nHilt-buried in the dry and trodden sand,\\nAnd ran and snatched it, and with battle-shout\\nLifted afresh he hewed his enemy down,\\nAnd saved a great cause that heroic day.\\n\\n\\nFor hundreds more poetry readings, visit the Classic Poetry Aloud index.\\n\\nReading \\xa9 Classic Poetry Aloud 2008'