Fluent Essays

Read the poem "memorial" and "Follow the instruction to write an essay and do the "Extra labor Option 2". ALSO BY ALICE OSWALD POETRY The Thing in the Gap-Stone Stile Dart Woods Etc. A Sleepwalk on the Severn Weeds and Wild Flowers EDITOR The Thunder Mutters: 101 Poems for the Planet Thomas Wyatt: Selected Poems MEMORIAL A VERSION OF HOMER’S ILIAD ALICE OSWALD W. W. NORTON & COMPANY NEW YORK LONDON Contents Begin Reading Acknowledgments Very many thanks to: Peter Oswald, Laura Beatty and the Keens, Sheila Hooker, Jules Cashford, Rupert Smith, Paul Keegan, Kevin Mount, Joe Richards, Iris Milward, Jo Larsen, Jerome Fletcher, Philip Franses, Minni Jain, Warwick Gould and the staff at Senate House Library, University of London – and Homer. This is a translation of the Iliad’s atmosphere, not its story. Matthew Arnold (and almost everyone ever since) has praised the Iliad for its ‘nobility’. But ancient critics praised its ‘enargeia’, which means something like ‘bright unbearable reality’. It’s the word used when gods come to earth not in disguise but as themselves. This version, trying to retrieve the poem’s enargeia, takes away its narrative, as you might lift the roof off a church in order to remember what you’re worshipping. What’s left is a bipolar poem made of similes and short biographies of soldiers, both of which derive (I think) from distinct poetic sources: the similes from pastoral lyric (you can tell this because their metre is sometimes compressed as if it originally formed part of a lyric poem); the biographies from the Greek tradition of lament poetry. There are accounts of Greek lament in both the Iliad and the Odyssey. When a corpse was layed out, a professional poet (someone like Homer) led the mourning and was antiphonally answered by women offering personal accounts of the deceased. I like to think that the stories of individual soldiers recorded in the Iliad might be recollections of these laments, woven into the narrative by poets who regularly performed both high epic and choral lyric poetry. The Iliad is a vocative poem. Perhaps even (in common with lament) it is invocative. It always addresses Patroclus as ‘you’, as if speaking directly to the dead. This translation presents the whole poem as a kind of oral cemetery – in the aftermath of the Trojan War, an attempt to remember people’s names and lives without the use of writing. I hope it doesn’t need too much context. I hope it will have its own coherence as a series of memories and similes laid side by side: an antiphonal account of man in his world. I should add a note about my attitude to the printed Iliad. My ‘biographies’ are paraphrases of the Greek, my similes are translations. However, my approach to translation is fairly irreverent. I work closely with the Greek, but instead of carrying the words over into English, I use them as openings through which to see what Homer was looking at. I write through the Greek, not from it – aiming for translucence rather than translation. I think this method, as well as my reckless dismissal of seven-eighths of the poem, is compatible with the spirit of oral poetry, which was never stable but always adapting itself to a new audience, as if its language, unlike written language, was still alive and kicking. PROTESILAUS ECHEPOLUS ELEPHENOR SIMOISIUS LEUKOS DEMOCOON DIORES PIROUS PHEGEUS IDAEUS ODIOS PHAESTUS SCAMANDRIUS PHERECLES PEDAEUS HYPSENOR ASTYNOOS HYPEIRON ABAS POLYIDOS XANTHUS THOON ECHEMMON CHROMIUS PANDARUS DEICOON ORSILOCHUS CRETHON PYLAEMENES MYDON MENESTHES ANCHIALOS AMPHIUS TLEPOLEMOS COERANUS CHROMIUS ALCASTOR ALCANDER HALIUS PYRTANIS NOEMON TEUTHRAS ORESTES TRECHUS OENOMAUS HELENUS ORESBIUS PERIPHAS ACAMAS AXYLUS CALESIUS PEDASUS AESEPUS ASTYALOS PIDUTES ARETAON ANTILOCHUS ELATUS PHYLAKOS MELANTHIUS ADRESTUS MENESTHIUS IPHINOUS ENIOPEUS AGELAOS ORSILOCHUS ORMENUS OPHELESTES DAETOR CHROMIUS LYCOPHONTES AMOPAON MELANIPPUS GORGYTHION ARCHEPTOLEMOS DOLON RHESUS ISOS ANTIPHOS PEISANDER HIPPOLOCHUS IPHIDAMAS COON ASAEUS AUTONOOS OPITES DOLOPS OPHELTIUS AGELAOS AESYMNUS ORUS HIPPONOUS THYMBRAIUS MOLION ADRESTUS AMPHIUS HIPPODAMOS HYPEIROCHOS AGASTRAPHUS THOON ENNOMUS CHERSIDAMAS SOCUS CHAROPS DORYCLES PANDOCUS LYSANDER PYRASUS PYLARTES APISAON DAMASOS PYLON ORMENOS HIPPOMACHOS ANTIPHATES MENON IAMENOS ORESTES EPICLES IMBRIOS AMPHIMACHOS OTHRYON ASIUS ALCATHOUS OINOMAOS ASKALAPHOS APHAREUS THOON ANTILOCHUS DEIPUROS PEISANDER HARPALION EUCHENOR SATNIUS PROTHOENOR ARCHELOCHUS PROMACHUS ILIONEUS STICHIUS ARCESILAUS MEDON IASUS MECISTEUS ECHIUS CLONIUS DEIOCHUS KALETOR LYKOPHRON KLEITOS SCHEDIOS LAODAMAS OTOS KROISMOS DOLOPS MELANIPPUS PERIPHETOS PURAICHMES AREILYCUS THOAS AMPHICLUS ATUMNIOS MARIS KLEOBULOS LYKON AKAMAS ERYMAS PRONOOS THESTOR ERYLAOS ERYMAS AMPHOTERUS EPALTES TLEPOLEMOS ECHIOS PURIS IPHES EUIPPOS POLYMELOS THRASYMELOS PEDASUS SARPEDON EPIGEUS BATHYCLES LAOGONUS PATROCLUS EUPHORBAS HIPPOTHOUS SCHEDIUS PHORCYS LEOCRITUS APISAON ARETUS PODES KOIRANUS IPHITUS DEMOLEON HIPPODAMAS POLYDORUS DRYOPS DEMUCHUS LAOGONUS DARDANUS TROS MULIUS RHIGMOS LYCAON THERSILOCHUS MYDON ASTYPYLOS MNESIUS THRASIUS AINIOS OPHELESTES HECTOR The first to die was PROTESILAUS A focused man who hurried to darkness With forty black ships leaving the land behind Men sailed with him from those flower-lit cliffs Where the grass gives growth to everything Pyrasus Iton Pteleus Antron He died in mid-air jumping to be first ashore There was his house half-built His wife rushed out clawing her face Podarcus his altogether less impressive brother Took over command but that was long ago He’s been in the black earth now for thousands of years Like a wind-murmur Begins a rumour of waves One long note getting louder The water breathes a deep sigh Like a land-ripple When the west wind runs through a field Wishing and searching Nothing to be found The corn-stalks shake their green heads Like a wind-murmur Begins a rumour of waves One long note getting louder The water breathes a deep sigh Like a land-ripple When the west wind runs through a field Wishing and searching Nothing to be found The corn-stalks shake their green heads ECHEPOLUS a perfect fighter Always ahead of his men Known for his cold seed-like concentration Moving out and out among the spears Died at the hands of Antilochus You can see the hole in the helmet just under the ridge Where the point of the blade passed through And stuck in his forehead Letting the darkness leak down over his eyes ELEPHENOR from Euboea in command of forty ships Son of Chalcodon nothing is known of his mother Died dragging the corpse of Echepolus A little flash of flesh showing under the shield as he bent Agenor stabbed him in the ninth year of the war He wore his hair long at the back Like leaves Sometimes they light their green flames And are fed by the earth And sometimes it snuffs them out Like leaves Sometimes they light their green flames And are fed by the earth And sometimes it snuffs them out SIMOISIUS born on the banks of the Simois Son of Anthemion his mother a shepherdess Still following the sheep when she gave birth A lithe and promising young man unmarried Was met by Ajax in the ninth year of the war And died full tilt running onto his spear The point passed clean through the nipple And came out through the shoulderblade He collapsed instantly an unspeakable sorrow to his parents And LEUKOS friend of Odysseus Little is known of him except his death And someone’s face pierced like a piece of fruit That was Priam’s son unlucky man Who made his living in the horse country North of Troy he was stepping backwards When the darkness hit him with a dull clang His name was DEMOCOON Like a man steps back Seeing a snake almost under his foot In a heathery hollow The fear flutters his knees it Sucks him white he steps back Like a man steps back Seeing a snake almost under his foot In a heathery hollow The fear flutters his knees it Sucks him white he steps back DIORES son of Amarinceus Struck by a flying flint Died in a puddle of his own guts Slammed down into mud he lies With his arms stretched out to his friends And PIROUS the Thracian You can tell him by his knotted hair Lies alongside him He killed him and was killed There seem to be black flints Everywhere a man steps Like through the jointed grass The long-stemmed deer Almost vanishes But a hound has already found her flattened tracks And he’s running through the fields towards her Like through the jointed grass The long-stemmed deer Almost vanishes But a hound has already found her flattened tracks And he’s running through the fields towards her The priest of Hephaestus Hot-faced from staring at flames Prayed every morning the same prayer Please god respect my status Protect my sons PHEGEUS and IDAEUS Calm down their horses lift them Out of the fight as light as ash Hephaestus heard him but he couldn’t Hold those bold boys back Riding over the battlefield too fast They met a flying spear And like a lift door closing Inexplicable Hephaestus Whisked one of them away And the other died What happened to that man from Alybe far away in the east What happened to ODIOS what happened to PHAESTUS He came from Tarne where the soil is loose and crumbly Like snow falling like snow When the living winds shake the clouds into pieces Like flutters of silence hurrying down To put a stop to the earth at her leafwork Like snow falling like snow When the living winds shake the clouds into pieces Like flutters of silence hurrying down To put a stop to the earth at her leafwork SCAMANDRIUS the hunter Knew every deer in the woods He used to hear the voice of Artemis Calling out to him in the lunar No man’s land of the mountains She taught him to track her animals But impartial death has killed the killer Now Artemis with all her arrows can’t help him up His accurate firing arm is useless Menelaus stabbed him One spear-thrust through the shoulders And the point came out through the ribs His father was Strophius Like when a mother is rushing And a little girl clings to her clothes Wants help wants arms Won’t let her walk Like staring up at that tower of adulthood Wanting to be light again Wanting this whole problem of living to be lifted And carried on a hip Like when a mother is rushing And a little girl clings to her clothes Wants help wants arms Won’t let her walk Like staring up at that tower of adulthood Wanting to be light again Wanting this whole problem of living to be lifted And carried on a hip Beloved of Athene PHERECLES son of Harmion Brilliant with his hands and born of a long line of craftsmen It was he who built the cursed fleet of Paris Little knowing it was his own death boat Died on his knees screaming Meriones speared him in the buttock And the point pierced him in the bladder And PEDAEUS the unwanted one The mistake of his father’s mistress Felt the hot shock in his neck of Meges’ spear Unswallowable sore throat of metal in his mouth Right through his teeth He died biting down on the spearhead Like suddenly it thunders And a stormwind rushes down And roars into the sea’s ears And the curves of many white-patched waves Run this way and that way Like suddenly it thunders And a stormwind rushes down And roars into the sea’s ears And the curves of many white-patched waves Run this way and that way Brave HYPSENOR the stump of whose hand Lies somewhere on the battlefield He was the son of Dolopion the river-priest Now he belongs to a great red emptiness Like when the rainy fog pulls down its hood on the mountains Misery for the herdsman better than night for the thief You can see no further than you can throw a stone Like when the rainy fog pulls down its hood on the mountains Misery for the herdsman better than night for the thief You can see no further than you can throw a stone Diomedes a madman a terrible numbness Turned inside-out and taking over everything Killed ASTYNOOS killed HYPEIRON Killed ABAS and POLYIDOS Their father could tell the future But he never prophesied that Killed XANTHUS and THOON Both tall men but their father Was a little wisp of worries Waiting at home what could he do Now all his savings will go to other people’s children Now he will have to live off nothing But his sons’ names meanwhile Diomedes With his eyes peeled down to their see-through stones Seeing through everything to its inner emptiness Killed ECHEMMON killed CHROMIUS Tin-opened them out of their armour And took for himself their high-stepping horses Like the high unescapable eye Of the eagle Under whose beam The shadow-swift hare can’t hide Pressed flat to the floor Of a leafy wood That loitering eye looks once And kills Like the high unescapable eye Of the eagle Under whose beam The shadow-swift hare can’t hide Pressed flat to the floor Of a leafy wood That loitering eye looks once And kills PANDARUS son of Lycaon had a wife at home In his high-roofed house in the foothills of Ida He was captain of Zelea and he and his men Used to drink the black raw water from the river He was a rich man a master bowman Eleven war cars in his stables brand new beautifully made With rugs and thoroughbred horses He couldn’t bear to risk them in the War He went on foot to Troy with nothing but his bow But that was no good to him The arrows kept flying off at angles If I ever get home he said And see my wife and my high-roofed house May a stranger cut off my head if I don’t Smash this bow and throw it with my own hands Into the fire it has proved such a nothingness But he climbed up nevertheless next to Aeneas He charged at Diomedes and a spear Thrown by Diomedes pushed hard in by Athene Hit him between the eyes it split-second Splintered his teeth cut through his tongue broke off his jaw And came out clean through the chin Like an oak tree struck by lightning Throws up its arms and burns Terrifying for a man out walking To smell that sulphur smell And see the fields flickering ahead of him Lit up blue by the strangeness of god Like an oak tree struck by lightning Throws up its arms and burns Terrifying for a man out walking To smell that sulphur smell And see the fields flickering ahead of him Lit up blue by the strangeness of god DEICOON the Trojan Was too eager too heroic He found praise yes But also death Like snow falls quickly from god to the ground When the north wind blows down the heavens Like snow falls quickly from god to the ground When the north wind blows down the heavens ORSILOCHUS and CRETHON grew restless They had shallow stony eyes Always staring at the pulling sea And they were the grandsons of a river Famous Alpheus whose muscular waters Wind round Pylos But those cold blue arms couldn’t keep them As soon as they were old enough They took a ship to Troy their story Finishes here in darkness What happened to PYLAEMENES He came from the Black Sea those dusty plains That bring forth mules and loud men His heart was made of coarse cloth And his manners were loose like old sacking He was a great captain but Menelaus killed him And his driver MYDON in the act of turning his horses Was killed by Antilochus Like two mules on a shaly path in the mountains Carrying a huge roof truss or the beam of a boat Go on mile after mile giving it their willingness Until the effort breaks their strength Like two mules on a shaly path in the mountains Carrying a huge roof truss or the beam of a boat Go on mile after mile giving it their willingness Until the effort breaks their strength And MENESTHES ANCHIALOS AMPHIUS TLEPOLEMOS COERANUS CHROMIUS ALCASTOR ALCANDER HALIUS PYRTANIS NOEMON TEUTHRAS ORESTES TRECHUS OENOMAUS HELENUS ORESBIUS PERIPHAS And ACAMAS a massive man best fighter in Thrace Came over the choppy tides of the Hellespont And almost instantly took a blow on his helmet The spear pressed through to his skull Tipped with darkness It was Ajax who stopped him Like that slow-motion moment When a woman weighs the wool Her poor old spider hands Work all night spinning a living for her children And then she stops She soothes the scales to a standstill Like that slow-motion moment When a woman weighs the wool Her poor old spider hands Work all night spinning a living for her children And then she stops She soothes the scales to a standstill AXYLUS son of Teuthras Lived all his life in the lovely harbour of Arisbe Looking down at the Hellespont Everyone knew that plump man Sitting on the step with his door wide open He who so loved his friends Died side by side with CALESIUS In a daze of loneliness Their conversation unfinished Like the hawk of the hills the perfect killer Easily outflies the clattering dove She dips away but he follows he ripples He hangs his black hooks over her And snares her with a thin cry In praise of her softness Like the hawk of the hills the perfect killer Easily outflies the clattering dove She dips away but he follows he ripples He hangs his black hooks over her And snares her with a thin cry In praise of her softness There was a blue pool who loved her loneliness Lay on her stones clear-eyed staring at trees Her name was Abarbarea A young man found her in the hills He took one look at her shivering freshness And stripped off his clothes In the middle of his astonished sheep He jumped off a rock right into her arms And from that quick fling there were two children PEDASUS and AESEPUS They died at Troy on the same day Like when a ditch-maker takes a mattock to water To cut it loose from its clods at first It’s just a secret trickle under nettles But then the pebbles shout out water And it runs downhill calling to his crops and orchards Leaving him staring Like when a ditch-maker takes a mattock to water To cut it loose from its clods at first It’s just a secret trickle under nettles But then the pebbles shout out water And it runs downhill calling to his crops and orchards Leaving him staring ASTYALOS PIDUTES ARETAON The flash of a spear Woke them with a jolt And ANTILOCHUS ELATUS PHYLAKOS MELANTHIUS Like when god keeps the night awake with lightning And the sky jumps into readiness for a huge rainstorm And sometimes hail or snow when blizzards wander in the fields Like when god keeps the night awake with lightning And the sky jumps into readiness for a huge rainstorm And sometimes hail or snow when blizzards wander in the fields ADRESTUS almost survived it was horrible To hear the hoof-kicking struggle of his horses Tangled on a tamarisk branch The cart cracked the man tipped headfirst forwards And landed on his mouth in the dust And there instantly stood Menelaus A sundial moving over his last moments With a long shadowing spear Take me alive said Adrestus I’ll give you everything gold bronze iron My father is a rich man take me alive But Agamemnon heard him Weakness what is this weakness Menelaus Don’t tell me you love these men With their impeccable wife-thief manners A death-curse on all of them kill them all Even the unborn ones in their mothers’ bellies Be uncried for unburied And that was the earth’s moment That was the death of Adrestus Like a good axe in good hands Finds out the secret of wood and splits it open When a man for example cuts out timbers for a boat And his axe is an iron decision swinging his arm Like a good axe in good hands Finds out the secret of wood and splits it open When a man for example cuts out timbers for a boat And his axe is an iron decision swinging his arm MENESTHIUS the only son of big-eyed Phylomedusa Came overland to Troy not quite knowing why Until he met Paris running in a love-rage towards him With the smell of Helen still on his hands Like a rainbow shining a warning to the world A bright banner of disruption hung above the fields Meaning war perhaps or maybe just a summer storm So that everyone stops work and looks up and the flocks grow restless Like a rainbow shining a warning to the world A bright banner of disruption hung above the fields Meaning war perhaps or maybe just a summer storm So that everyone stops work and looks up and the flocks grow restless Another man springing into his chariot Felt a blow on his shoulder and dropped Like a leaf from a topmost twig His name was IPHINOUS And ENIOPEUS with high hopes Drove Hector into battle Into the terrifying anti-world of the wounded The wheels kept slewing over bodies But he held tight he was good with horses Until a spear shocked him in the nipple He vanished backwards and hit the ground under their hooves Clang his soul burst into the open And AGELAOS in the act of turning Noticed the death cloud Diomedes towering towards him He was heaving his horses round swearing When a spearshot pushed through his shout and out through his chest He fell made of metal banging on the ground Like a man put a wand of olive in the earth And watered it and that wand became a wave It became a whip a spine a crown It became a wind-dictionary It could speak in tongues It became a wobbling wagon-load of flowers And then a storm came spinning by And it became a broken tree uprooted It became a wood pile in a lonely field Like a man put a wand of olive in the earth And watered it and that wand became a wave It became a whip a spine a crown It became a wind-dictionary It could speak in tongues It became a wobbling wagon-load of flowers And then a storm came spinning by And it became a broken tree uprooted It became a wood pile in a lonely field Eight flint-leaved arrows seemingly out of nowhere Shot through ORSILOCHUS ORMENUS OPHELESTES DAETOR CHROMIUS LYCOPHONTES AMOPAON MELANIPPUS That was Teucer Ducking behind his brother’s shield And now the arrow flies through GORGYTHION Somebody’s darling son As if it was June A poppy being hammered by the rain Sinks its head down It’s exactly like that When a man’s neck gives in And the bronze calyx of his helmet Sinks his head down As if it was June A poppy being hammered by the rain Sinks its head down It’s exactly like that When a man’s neck gives in And the bronze calyx of his helmet Sinks his head down Poor ARCHEPTOLEMOS Someone was there And the next moment no one Like fire with its loose hair flying rushes through a city The look of unmasked light shocks everything to rubble And flames howl through the gaps Like fire with its loose hair flying rushes through a city The look of unmasked light shocks everything to rubble And flames howl through the gaps What was that shrill sound Five sisters at the grave Calling the ghost of DOLON They remember an ugly man but quick In a crack of light in the sweet smelling glimmer before dawn He was caught creeping to the ships He wore a weasel cap he was soft Dishonest scared stooped they remember How under a spear’s eye he offered everything All his father’s money all his own Every Trojan weakness every hope of their allies Even the exact position of the Thracians And the colour and size and price of the horses of Rhesus They keep asking him why why He gave away groaning every secret in his body And was still pleading for his head When his head rolled onto the mud Like the fly the daredevil fly Being brushed away But busying back The lunatic fly who loves licking And will follow a man all day For a nip of his blood Like the fly the daredevil fly Being brushed away But busying back The lunatic fly who loves licking And will follow a man all day For a nip of his blood Recently arrived and camping apart from everyone With weapons cleaned and layed down like cutlery This is horrible this is some kind of bloodfeast And beside each man his horses Twelve anonymous Thracians were killed in their sleep Before their ghosts had time to keep hold of their names It was so sudden The raw meat smell of their bodies woke up the dogs And these were rich men They had long smooth hair but Diomedes Red-faced quietly like a butcher keeping up with his order Got rid of them And the last one RHESUS was a king He should never have come here Bringing over the water those huge white horses With their chains and painted cheek guards Extraordinary creatures almost marble but moving Like wolves always wanting something Thin shapes always working the hills When a shepherd lets his flocks wander And the weaklings bleat their fear Within seconds wolves will appear Like wolves always wanting something Thin shapes always working the hills When a shepherd lets his flocks wander And the weaklings bleat their fear Within seconds wolves will appear Two more metal ornaments Knocked down anonymous in their helmets And when those iron heads opened Everyone whispered listen That was ISOS and ANTIPHOS They used to be shepherds they were hill people Working out of reach of the world Those were the two boys Achilles kidnapped Among the wolves and buzzards of Mount Ida They said it was wonderful to be tied in creepers And taken to the other side by that gypsy They said he could talk to horses They said his mother was a seal or mermaid And he introduced them to Agamemnon The great king of Mycenae poor fools Who came home as proud as astronauts And didn’t want to farm any more And went riding out to be killed by Agamemnon Like a boat Going into the foaming mouth of a wave In the body of the wind Everything vanishes And the sailors stare at mid-air Like a boat Going into the foaming mouth of a wave In the body of the wind Everything vanishes And the sailors stare at mid-air Antimachus was bribed this is well known Antimachus was a friend of Paris Who put the case for war He opened a door in the earth And a whole generation entered Including his own young sons PEISANDER and HIPPOLOCHUS Two dazed teenagers trotting into battle On their father’s expensive horses And those horses those colossal death-muscles Ramped and flared and the reins Slipped from the boys’ hands Please take us alive they shouted Our father is Antimachus a gentleman He has the cost of us both in cash back at home We could fetch it But Agamemnon remembered Their father was that sly old man Who tried to murder Menelaus Antimachus assured them He had acted in good faith But their ghosts said nothing Like close to the grey sea the waiting rocks Outstare the winds and the big waves Running at them open-mouthed Like close to the grey sea the waiting rocks Outstare the winds and the big waves Running at them open-mouthed IPHIDAMAS a big ambitious boy At the age of eighteen at the age of restlessness His family crippled him with love They gave him a flute and told him to amuse himself In his grandfather’s sheep-nibbled fields That didn’t work they gave him a bride Poor woman lying in her new name alone She said even on his wedding night He seemed to be wearing armour He kept yawning and looking far away And by the next morning he’d vanished Arrogant farmhand fresh from the fields He went straight for Agamemnon Aiming for the soft bit under the breastplate And leaning in pushing all his violence All his crazy impatience into the thrust But he couldn’t quite break through the belt-metal Against all that silver the spear-tip Simply bent like lead and he lost Poor Iphidamas now he is only iron Sleeping its iron sleep poor boy Who fought for Helen for his parents’ town Far from his wife all that money wasted A hundred cattle he gave her A thousand sheep and goats All that hard work feeding them wasted Grief is black it is made of earth It gets into the cracks in the eyes It lodges its lump in the throat When a man sees his brother on the ground He goes mad he comes running out of nowhere Lashing without looking and that was how COON died First he wounded Agamemnon Then he grabbed his brother’s stiffened foot And tried to drag him home shouting Help for god’s sake this is Iphidamas Someone please help but Agamemnon Cut off his head and that was that Two brothers killed on the same morning by the same man That was their daylight here finished And their long nightshift in the underworld just beginning Like when two winds want a wood The south wind and the east wind Both pull at the trees’ arms And the sound of smooth-skinned cornel whipping to and fro And oak and ash batting long sticks together Is a word from another world Like when two winds want a wood The south wind and the east wind Both pull at the trees’ arms And the sound of smooth-skinned cornel whipping to and fro And oak and ash batting long sticks together Is a word from another world ASAEUS AUTONOOS OPITES DOLOPS OPHELTIUS AGELAOS AESYMNUS ORUS HIPPONOUS THYMBRAIUS MOLION Like fawns running over a field Suddenly give up and stand Puzzled in their heavy coats Like fawns running over a field Suddenly give up and stand Puzzled in their heavy coats Also ADRESTUS and AMPHIUS Everyone knew they were going to die They were the sons of Merops the prophet He begged them to stay at home but they couldn’t listen Their own ghosts were calling them to Troy Immaculate in clean linen They set out together but Death Was already walking to meet them Like a goatherd stands on a rock And sees a cloud blowing towards him A black block of rain coming closer over the sea Pushing a ripple of wind inland He shivers and drives his flocks into a cave for shelter …