Page:Four Plays of Aeschylus (Cookson).djvu/115

Rh

And Tolmus good at need,

A greedy fighter fell to fill

With the red meat of war;

I marvel that they follow not

Thy crimson-curtained car.

All, all have gone the darkling way

With that great host they led!

All, all are gone the darkling way

Down to the unmemoried dead!

Forbear! This stabs me to the heart!

O unseen power, whoe'er thou art,

Thou hast hurled down a gleaming woe,

Bright ruin's ghastly meteor-glow!

A stroke hath fallen resonant

To the last beat of time.

A stroke hath fallen resonant

To earth's remotest clime.

O strange, new pang! Sharp agony!

Ionia, mistress of the sea

We struck under an evil star;

Yea, Persia hath ill-hap in war!