Trailed o'er towns and fields in woe;
When they streaked the rivers red,

When the saddle was the bed.
Attila, my Attila!

III
He breathed peace and pulled a flower.

Eye and have, my Attila!
This was the damsel Ildico,

Rich in bloom until that hour:
Shyer than the forest doe

Twinkling slim through branches green.
Yet the shyest shall be seen.

Make the bed for Attila!
IV

Seen of Attila, desired,
She was led to him straightway:

Radiantly was she attired;
Rifled lands were her array,

Jewels bled from weeping crowns,
Gold of woeful fields and towns.

She stood pallid in the light.
How she walked, how withered white,

From the blessing to the board,
She who would have proudly blushed,

Women whispered, asking why,
Hinting of a youth, and hushed.

Was it terror of her lord?
Was she childish? was she sly?

Was it the bright mantle's dye
Drained her blood to hues of grief

Like the ash that shoots the spark?
See the green tree all in leaf:

See the green tree stripped of bark! -
Make the bed for Attila!

V
Round the banquet-table's load

Scores of iron horsemen rode;
Chosen warriors, keen and hard;

Grain of threshing battle-dints;
Attila's fierce body-guard,

Smelling war like fire in flints.
Grant them peace be fugitive!

Iron-capped and iron-heeled,
Each against his fellow's shield

Smote the spear-head, shouting, Live,
Attila! my Attila!

Eagle, eagle of our breed,
Eagle, beak the lamb, and feed!

Have her, and unleash us! live,
Attila! my Attila!

VI
He was of the blood to shine

Bronze in joy, like skies that scorch.
Beaming with the goblet wine

In the wavering of the torch,
Looked he backward on his bride.

Eye and have, my Attila!
Fair in her wide robe was she:

Where the robe and vest divide,
Fair she seemed surpassingly:

Soft, yet vivid as the stream
Danube rolls in the moonbeam

Through rock-barriers: but she smiled
Never, she sat cold as salt:

Open-mouthed as a young child
Wondering with a mind at fault.

Make the bed for Attila!
VII

Under the thin hoop of gold
Whence in waves her hair outrolled,

'Twixt her brows the women saw
Shadows of a vulture's claw

Gript in flight: strange knots that sped
Closing and dissolving aye:

Such as wicked dreams betray
When pale dawn creeps o'er the bed.

They might show the common pang
Known to virgins, in whom dread

Hunts their bliss like famished hounds;
While the chiefs with roaring rounds

Tossed her to her lord, and sang
Praise of him whose hand was large,

Cheers for beauty brought to yield,
Chirrups of the trot afield,

Hurrahs of the battle-charge.
VIII

Those rock-faces hung with weed
Reddened: their great days of speed,

Slaughter, triumph, flood and flame,
Like a jealousfrenzy wrought,

Scoffed at them and did them shame,
Quaffing idle, conquering nought.

O for the time when God decreed
Earth the prey of Attila!

God called on thee in his wrath,
Trample it to mire! 'Twas done.

Swift as Danube clove our path
Down from East to Western sun.

Huns! behold your pasture, gaze,
Take, our king said: heel to flank

(Whisper it, the war-horse neighs!)
Forth we drove, and blood we drank

Fresh as dawn-dew: earth was ours:
Men were flocks we lashed and spurned:

Fast as windy flame devours,
Flame along the wind, we burned.

Arrow javelin, spear, and sword!
Here the snows and there the plains;

On! our signal: onward poured
Torrents of the tightened reins,

Foaming over vine and corn
Hot against the city-wall.

Whisper it, you sound a horn
To the grey beast in the stall!

Yea, he whinnies at a nod.
O for sound of the trumpet-notes!

O for the time when thunder-shod,
He that scarce can munch his oats,

Hung on the peaks, brooded aloof,
Champed the grain of the wrath of God,

Pressed a cloud on the cowering roof,
Snorted out of the blackness fire!

Scarlet broke the sky, and down,
Hammering West with print of his hoof,

He burst out of the bosom of ire
Sharp as eyelight under thy frown,

Attila, my Attila!
IX

Ravaged cities rolling smoke
Thick on cornfields dry and black,

Wave his banners, bear his yoke.
Track the lightning, and you track

Attila. They moan: 'tis he!
Bleed: 'tis he! Beneath his foot

Leagues are deserts charred and mute;
Where he passed, there passed a sea.

Attila, my Attila!
X

- Who breathed on the king cold breath?
Said a voice amid the host,

He is Death that weds a ghost,
Else a ghost that weds with Death?

Ildico's chill little hand
Shuddering he beheld: austere

Stared, as one who would command
Sight of what has filled his ear:

Plucked his thin beard, laughed disdain.
Feast, ye Huns! His arm be raised,

Like the warrior, battle-dazed,
Joining to the fight amain.

Make the bed for Attila!
XI

Silent Ildico stood up.
King and chief to pledge her well,

Shocked sword sword and cup on cup,
Clamouring like a brazen bell.

Silent stepped the queenly slave.
Fair, by heaven! she was to meet

On a midnight, near a grave,
Flapping wide the winding-sheet.

XII
Death and she walked through the crowd,

Out beyond the flush of light.
Ceremonious women bowed

Following her: 'twas middle night.
Then the warriors each on each

Spied, nor overloudly laughed;
Like the victims of the leech,

Who have drunk of a strange draught.
XIII

Attila remained. Even so
Frowned he when he struck the blow,

Brained his horse, that stumbled twice,
On a bloody day in Gaul,

Bellowing, Perish omens! All
Marvelled at the sacrifice,

But the battle, swinging dim,
Rang off that axe-blow for him.

Attila, my Attila!
XIV

Brightening over Danube wheeled
Star by star; and she, most fair,

Sweet as victory half-revealed,
Seized to make him glad and young;

She, O sweet as the dark sign
Given him oft in battles gone,

When the voice within said, Dare!
And the trumpet-notes were sprung

Rapturous for the charge in line:
She lay waiting: fair as dawn

Wrapped in folds of night she lay;
Secret, lustrous; flaglike there,

Waiting him to stream and ray,
With one loosening blush outflung,

Colours of his hordes of horse
Ranked for combat; still he hung

Like the fever dreading air,
Cursed of heat; and as a corse

Gathers vultures, in his brain
Images of her eyes and kiss

Plucked at the limbs that could remain

• saddle [´sædl] n.鞍子 v.装鞍(于) (初中英语单词)
• damsel [´dæmzəl] n.姑娘，未婚少女 (初中英语单词)
• blessing [´blesiŋ] n.祝福 (初中英语单词)
• proudly [´praudli] ad.骄傲地；傲慢地 (初中英语单词)
• terror [´terə] n.恐怖；惊骇 (初中英语单词)
• childish [´tʃaildiʃ] a.孩子的；幼稚的 (初中英语单词)
• fierce [fiəs] a.残忍的；强烈的 (初中英语单词)
• backward [´bækwəd] ad.向后 a.向后的 (初中英语单词)
• flight [flait] n.逃走；飞行；班机 (初中英语单词)
• wicked [´wikid] a.邪恶的；不道德的 (初中英语单词)
• triumph [´traiəmf] n.胜利 vi.得胜，战胜 (初中英语单词)
• jealous [´dʒeləs] a.妒忌的 (初中英语单词)
• western [´westən] a.西的；西方的 (初中英语单词)
• pasture [´pɑ:stʃə] n.牧场；放牧 v.吃(草) (初中英语单词)
• scarce [skeəs, skers] a.缺乏的；稀有的 (初中英语单词)
• lightning [´laitniŋ] n.闪电 a.突然的 (初中英语单词)
• beheld [bi´held] behold的过去式(分词) (初中英语单词)
• warrior [´wɔriə] n.勇士，战士 (初中英语单词)
• pledge [pledʒ] n.信物；誓约vt.使发誓 (初中英语单词)
• midnight [´midnait] n.午夜；漆黑 (初中英语单词)
• bloody [´blʌdi] a.(流)血的；血腥的 (初中英语单词)
• perish [´periʃ] v.灭亡；消灭；(使)死去 (初中英语单词)
• victory [´viktəri] n.胜利，战胜 (初中英语单词)
• charge [tʃɑ:dʒ] v.收费；冲锋 n.费用 (初中英语单词)
• waiting [´weitiŋ] n.等候；伺候 (初中英语单词)
• stream [stri:m] n.河 vi.流出；飘扬 (初中英语单词)
• onward [´ɔnwəd] ad.&a.向前(的) (高中英语单词)
• combat [´kɔmbæt] v.&n.斗争；战斗；争斗 (高中英语单词)
• goblet [´gɔblit] n.高脚玻璃杯 (英语四级单词)
• frenzy [´frenzi] n.&vt.(使)狂乱 (英语四级单词)
• danube [´dænju:b] n.多瑙河 (英语四级单词)
• blackness [´blæknis] n.黑色；阴险 (英语四级单词)
• brazen [´breizən] a.黄铜制的；无耻的 (英语四级单词)
• weeping [´wi:piŋ] a.&n.哭泣(的) (英语六级单词)
• javelin [´dʒævəlin] n.标枪 (英语六级单词)