ON THE VANITY OF EARTHLY GREATNESS
The tusks that clashed in mighty brawls
Of mastodons, are billiard balls.
The sword of Charlemagne the Just
Is ferric oxide, known as rust.
The grizzly bear whose potent hug
Was feared by all, is now a rug.
Great Caesar’s bust is on my shelf,
And I don’t feel so well myself.
-Arthur Guiterman
This is a fun poem. The poet joined the theme by embarking on his own transformation to dust some time back. I also like these other lines he wrote, on changes he saw happening around him:
New motor roads are dustless,
The latest steel is rustless,
Our tennis courts are sodless,
Our new religions—godless.
I’m sure that countless swords that have been swung through the ages are pretty rusty by now, but I happened to see this article about the Frankish king’s most famous sword, “Joyeuse” — and that one is not rust yet, because it has been preserved in the Louvre for many generations. Has any of you seen it?
Gladsome Lights 
Wow, I like this guy! I’ll have to look up his poetry. The sword looks great – amazing. I would hope that any sacred relic, such as the sword which pierced the Lord, would belong to the Church, and not the Louvre, so I’m glad it’s not that one. The Durer painting isn’t one of his more recognizables: I mostly run into his sketches, although I know I’ve seen a self-portrait online, the pretty boy. 🙂
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I have never thought about the sword that pierced Christ… and I’ve never heard that the church preserved any weapons as relics — have you? The sword that pierced Christ, the weapon that beheaded John the Baptist, etc… Those seem to me to be in an entirely different category from the Cross, on which Christ voluntarily suffered.
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I never thought about it before, but if it existed somewhere, and it had touched him, the Church would want to own it, I imagine. The Catholic devotion to the Divine Mercy says: O Blood and Water, which gushed forth as a fount of mercy for us, I trust in Thee. The sword made it happen, so to speak.
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The blood and water would be relics! and anything pertaining to the Lord or the saint, like their personal effects — St Paul’s handkerchief, for example; items that have been known down through history to have power or be worthy of veneration because of their close association to the holy person. But the weapon that harmed Christ would be the personal effect of — not a saint.
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Then relic would be the wrong word, but, like the cross, it seems it would still be important. He was pierced after death, so it didn’t harm him. I guess we have to differ on this. 🙂 And I should go to bed! 😀
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I guess it’s theoretical, because evidently the Lord did not provide for the early Christians to obtain that particular sword. Good night, Lisa!
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No, although I visited the Louvre for hours on 2-3 occasions (and never managed to cover it all), I mainly went for the artwork. I don’t think I even realized there were historic swords there.
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Oooh, I like these lines quite a lot! Thank you 🙂
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These words remind me of Ecclesiastes. Our pastor is preaching through that book right now…
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