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.
The horsemen crossed the valley like a storm across the plain,
With the thunder of their hooves that shook the sky and stirred the rain.
Their banners streamed like rivers, and their lances gleamed like fire,
And the pounding of ten thousand hearts rose higher, ever higher.
The dust rose up in clouds of gold, and the ground began to sing,
For the earth itself was answering the charge of the eager king.
But amid the roar and glory of that wild and racing tide,
One rider paused to lift a child who wept by the roadside.
Poet in the Battlefield · Hear it on the channel ↗
Commentary
A cavalry charge is one of the grandest images of war. This eight-line epic gives it full speed and glory and then turns, in the last couplet, to a small act of mercy.
The horsemen “crossed the valley like a storm across the plain,” with “the thunder of their hooves.” Their banners stream “like rivers,” their lances gleam “like fire,” and “the pounding of ten thousand hearts rose higher, ever higher.” The dust becomes “clouds of gold,” and “the ground began to sing.”
Then, “amid the roar and glory of that wild and racing tide,” “one rider paused to lift a child who wept by the roadside.” The poem ends there, saying more about honour in that pause than in the charge.