Of all Poseidon Lord of Earth
Poureth or Tethys' children speed.
Therefore, ye Gods, that are our stay,
Yonder without the wall
Send havoc;—with slaughter and casting away
Of shields, when slain men fall:
But dismiss not our prayers unheard, disowned,
Our lamentable cry entoned:
Save us and win for our land renown;
Then reign within the walled town
Unshakeably enthroned!
Sorrow it were thus to send down to hell a city coeval with grandeurs of old
Captive and spoil of an enemy spear, 'mid the crumbling of ashes;
her store and her gold
Sacked by the Achaean as things of no worth, unregarded of Heaven;
sore sorrow it were
Should mother and matron and maiden and bride as a horse by the forelock
be haled by the hair
With rending of raiment. Loud, loud is the voice of a city made empty:
her children's farewells—
As they go to their ruin—confused with exultings; and heavy the doom that
my fear foretells.
Woe for the lawless reaping of unripe corn; for the rape of the bride unwed,
For the far strange home and the long, long way to it, travelled with hate,
she must tread!
Nay, of a truth, where dead men dwell, there is more of bliss; for with multiple ills
When a city is taken man visiteth man; he leads away captive, he spills
