---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Landon, Miss
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 2
number: 5
published: 1899-03
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Landon, Miss, "The Sword," *Improvement Era* 2, no. 5 (March 1899): 346.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera25unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera25unse
start_page: 346
end_page: 346
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1899-03)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera25unse
  publication_year: 1899
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1899, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# The Sword

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THE SWORD.
Twas the battle field, and the cold, pale moon
Looked down on the dead and dying,
And the wind passed o'er with a dirge and a wail,
Where the young and the brave were lying.
With his father's sword in his red, right hand,
And the hostile dead around him.
Lay a youthful chief; but his bed was the ground,
And the grave's icy sleep had bound him.
A reckless rover, 'mid death and doom,
Pass'd, a soldier, his plunder seeking;
Careless he stopped where friend and foe
Lay alike in their life-blood reeking.
Drawn by the shine of the warrior's sword.
The soldier paused beside it;
He wrenched the hand with a giant's strength,
But the grasp of the dead defied it.
He loosed his hold, and his English heart
Took part with the dead before him.
And he honor'd the brave who died sword in hand,
As with soften'd brow he leaned o'er him.
"A soldier's death thou hast boldly died,
A soldier's grave won by it;
Before I would take that sword from thine hand
My own life's blood should dye it.
"Thou shalt not be left for the carrion crow.
Or the wolf to batten o'er thee;
Or the coward insult the gallant dead.
Who in life had trembled before thee."
Then dug he a grave in the crimson earth
Where the warrior foe was sleeping;
And he laid him there in honor and rest.
With his sword in his own brave keeping.
Miss Landon