The Close Fight by Archilochus

Bows will not avail thee,
Darts and slings will fail thee,
When Mars tumultuous rages
On wide-embattled land;
Then with faulchions clashing,
Eyes with fury flashing,
Man with man engages
In combat hand to hand.
But most Eubœa’s chiefs are known,
Marshalled hosts of spearmen leading
To conflict, whence is no receding,
To make this—war’s best art—their own.

From: Merivale, J. H. (ed. and transl.), Collections from the Greek Anthology. By the Late Rev. Robert Bland, and Others. A New Edition, 1833, Longman, Rees, Ormes, Brown, Green, and Longman, and John Murray: London, p. 5.
(https://archive.org/details/collectionsfrom00blan)

Date: 7^th century BCE (original in Greek); 1813 (translation in English)

By: Archilochus (c680-645 BCE)

Translated by: John Herman Merivale (1779-1844)

Tags: 1813, 7th century bce, archilochus, bows will not avail thee, john herman merivale, poetry, the close fight