The day that I die shall the sky be clear

And the east sea-wind blow free,

Sweeping along with its rover's song

To bear my soul to sea.

 

They will carry me out of the bamboo hut

To the driftwood piled on the lea,

And ye that name me in after years,

This shall ye say of me:

Marching Song of Connacht

 

The men of the East are decked in steel,

They march with a trumpet's din,

They glitter with silks and golden scales,

And high kings boast their kin-

We of the West wear the hides of wolves,

But our hearts are steel within.

 

Before the shadows slew the sun the kites were soaring free,

And Kull rode down the forest road, his red sword at his knee;

And winds were whispering round the world: "King Kull rides to the sea."

 

 

No more!" they swear; I laugh to hear them speak.

And Tubal-Cain who lurks where the shadows shake:

"Break up the swords!" his jaws like iron creak;

"Faster than you may break them, I shall make!"

Yes, break the swords--the old were far too blunt--

Make newer blades with edges diamond keen,

That when we strike, the breasts that bear the brunt

May thrill to beauty of their deathly sheen--

Oh, men who died in Flanders' bloody field,

Against the days to be, Death is your shield.

 

Robert E. Howard