Explore "The Sword" by Helen Gray Cone on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
MOODS OF WAR
One of the seventy had a sword / The day that Christ was crucified: / He followed where they led his Lord, / The man that could not stand aside.
When that first hammer-stroke rang loud, / And left and right the rabble swayed, / He flashed from out the staring crowd, / He died upon the Roman blade.
His fruitless deed, his noteless name, / By careless Rome were never told. / Now shall we give him praise or blame? / Account him base, acclaim him bold?
Was he the traitor to his Lord, / Deeper than Peter that denied, / The loving soul that took the sword, / The man that would not stand aside?
Or did the glorious company / Of Michael's sworded seraphim / With chivalrous high courtesy / Rise up to make a place for him?