<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Said Attila the Hun to --</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">It</span> was not here -- it was not there,</p><p class="line">It was not now -- it was not then...</p><p class="line">Beyond the bounds of Otherwhere,</p><p class="line">Two tyrant lords of vanished men --</p><p class="line">They meet in shadowy mail and casque,</p><p class="line">They greet, and of each other ask.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">(Two shades whose work on earth was dire,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">Mid darted lights and whelming gloom,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">Their eyes the lamps of lethal fire,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">Fierce thirst for power their endless doom --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">To seek, to be thrown back, to seek!...</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">To learn the triumph of the weak!)</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">"Lo, I am Attila, who laid</p><p class="line">Proud Aquileia in the dust;</p><p class="line">The Slav, the Teuton, slaked my blade --</p><p class="line">Of blood I had the sacred lust!</p><p class="line">Yea, Attila am I; but thou,</p><p class="line">Who has our brand upon thy brow!"</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">"I, too, made treasure-cities smoke,</p><p class="line">And blood with ashes mixed therein;</p><p class="line">And from the sky, on sleeping folk,</p><p class="line">Mine engines did full vengeance win!"</p><p class="line">To whom said Attila the Hun,</p><p class="line">"In all of this thou hast well done!"</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">"But I," the other shade replies,</p><p class="line">"Where'er I dealt the killing blow,</p><p class="line">Or gave mine iron cross as prize,</p><p class="line">Therewith I bade God's blessing go..."</p><p class="line">...Then, Attila fell back, outdone --</p><p class="line">God's scourge, and not His favored son!</p></div><p class="byline">-- Edith M. Thomas.</p></body></html> · Great War