The 300

image borrowed from bing

The 300

“Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by,

that here, obedient to Spartan law, we lie.”

--Simonides.

Mighty Xerxes of Persia marched into Greece one day

in 350 B.C., thinking to conquer, and to slay,

but the City States soldier’s battle cry

was “No quarter--preserve liberty or die!”;

the Greeks stood fast, “defeat”  they refused to even say.

Leonidus with his 300 Spartans blocked the way

in the pass at Thermopylae, & were able to slay

Persians by the hundreds, refusing to comply,

shouting “Freedom will prevail!”.

Again & again the Spartans ruled the fray,

until betrayal & a hidden path made them prey.

Persians surrounded them thanks to a spy

as thousands of arrows filled the sky;

their voices were loud as they perished on the clay,

shouting “Freedom will prevail!”.

Glenn Buttkus

October 2013

Posted over on dVerse Poets FFA

I chose to write the 16th century English Rondeau.

Would you like to hear the author read this poem to you?