m the bride-bed of dawn whence day leaps laughing, on
fire for his flight,
Come down with their doom in thine hand on the ships thou hast
brought up against us to fight.
For now not in word but in deed is the harvest of spears
begun, [_Str._ 7.
And its clamour outbellows the thunder, its lightning outlightens
the sun. 1340
From the springs of the morning it thunders and lightens across
and afar
To the wave where the moonset ends and the fall of the last
low star.
With a trampling of drenched red hoofs and an earthquake of men
that meet,
Strong war sets hand to the scythe, and the furrows take fire
from his feet.
Earth groans from her great rent heart, and the hollows of rocks
are afraid,
And the mountains are moved, and the valleys as waves in a
storm-wind swayed.
From the roots of the hills to the plain's dim verge and the dark
loud shore,
Air shudders with shrill spears crossing, and hurtling of wheels
that roar.
As the grinding of teeth in the jaws of a lion that foam as
they gnash
Is the shriek of the axles that loosen, the shock of the poles
that crash. 1350
The dense manes darken and glitter, the mouths of the mad
steeds champ,
Their heads flash blind through the battle, and death's foot
rings in their tramp.
For a fourfold host upon earth and in heaven is arrayed for
the fight,
Clouds ruining in thunder and armies encountering as clouds in
the night.
Mine ears are amazed with the terror of trumpets, with darkness
mine eyes,
At the sound of the sea's host charging that deafens the roar of
the sky's.
White frontlet is dashed upon frontlet, and horse against horse
reels hurled,
And the gorge of the gulfs of the battle is wide for the spoil
of the world.
And the meadows are cumbered with shipwreck of chariots that
founder on land, [_Ant._ 7.
And the horsemen are broken with breach as of breakers, and
scattered as sand. 1360
Through the roar and recoil of the charges that mingle their
cries and