Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Greece and Turkey in Europe: Vol. XIX. 1876–79.
The March of Xerxes
By Luigi Alamanni (1495–1556)Translated by Sir Aubrey de Vere
W
Vain Xerxes spurred his war-horse through the tide,
And bore his fleet o’er mountain-tops,—e’en there
The Eternal bade his evil heart despair:
O’er Hellespont and Athos’ marble head,
More than a god he came, less than a man he fled.