Arthur Draws the Sword from the Stone
(Or, the labour theory of value)
Arthur quarried and gathered the dun stone,
Felled the oak and beech for his charcoal pit,
Fashioned a furnace by hand and fired it,
Then loaded ore into its clay-bound cone
To smelt and run out the molten iron
Into the rough casting modelled in sand,
Cooling into the form for what he planned.
Still brittle then, much remained to be done:
Heat and hammer, heat and hammer to force
Imperfections out, shaping, tempering
And honing until, with blade appearing,
Pommel and guard gilded and fixed, the course
Of manufacture was complete. From stone
By Arthur, king of his craft, the sword was drawn.
D. A.
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