The Fall of the Men of Zad

 The foe he came down like the wolf on the fold,
 And his men they all shone in their silk and their gold;
 And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the deep,
 When the blue wave rolls out on the sea as we sleep.

 Like the leaves of the wood when Spring's child puts on green,
 That host with its flags as the sun set were seen:
 Like the leaves of the wood when Fall's rags are all down,
 That host on the morn lay strewn dead on the ground.

 For the one who brings Death spread his wings on the blast,
 And he breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
 And the eyes of the prone ones went dead and waxed chill,
 And their hearts but once heaved, once for all they grew still!

 And there lay the steed with his nose flared out wide,
 But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;
 And the foam of his mouth lay there white on the soil,
 As cold as the spray on the rocks where it roils.

 And there lay his lord, now all warped and grown pale,
 With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:
 From the tents came no sound as the flags slumped, not flown,
 The spears not held high and the horns not once blown.

 And the wives left at home beat their breasts as they wail,
 And the false stocks are cracked in the false shrine of Baal;
 For their might, with no blow struck by spear or by sword,
 Hath run like hot snow in the glance of the Lord!

                                -- Lord B.
                                   (done by S. Daws)

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