Draft in the author’s style. This poem was written for Poet in the Battlefield to sit beside the author’s own readings, and is waiting for the author’s review. The commentary is a working draft too.
We locked our shields together like the scales of an ancient beast,
And stood as one unbroken wall from the west unto the east.
The spears came down like winter rain, but the wood and iron held,
For no man stood alone that day, and no man's heart was quelled.
Behind me was my brother's breath, before me was the foe,
And between us was the promise that we would not let it go.
A wall is only stones and wood until it learns to care,
And ours was made of trust and love, and it held beyond compare.
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Commentary
A shield wall works only if every man holds his place. This eight-line epic makes that tactic into a lesson about trust, and about how strength comes from those beside us.
The soldiers “locked our shields together like the scales of an ancient beast” and “stood as one unbroken wall.” “The spears came down like winter rain, but the wood and iron held,” for “no man stood alone that day.”
The speaker feels “my brother’s breath” behind and “the foe” ahead, with “the promise that we would not let it go” between. The poem ends with a lesson: “A wall is only stones and wood until it learns to care.”