He came like fire through standing grain No pause, no mercy, no appeal The morning that had crowned his bronze Now learned the weight of iron will He drove his line through shield and shout Through splintered ash and breaking breath And every step the king advanced Turned open ground into a death Agamemnon unleashed Through the dust, through the heat Like a storm with a face And a spear in its teeth Agamemnon unleashed No restraint, no release Only bronze, only blood Only men underneath The horses screamed, the axle burned The daylight shook above the plain A name can rule from distant tents But now his name was in the slain He struck where brave men thought to stand He broke what others thought would hold And all that gold upon his frame Turned savage in the rising cold Some ran with courage in their throats Some stood because they had no choice But when the king came pressing on He drowned command and prayer and voice Not every blow was clean or proud Not every cry was fit for song Yet battle does not weigh the soul It only asks who lasts how long Agamemnon unleashed Through the dust, through the heat Like a storm with a face And a spear in its teeth Agamemnon unleashed No restraint, no release Only bronze, only blood Only men underneath He cut through fathers, cut through sons Through promises not carried home And every shield that met his rage Sounded like struck and frightened stone This was no feast of noble words No council torch, no measured plea This was a king with all his force Set loose where all men cease to be And still he drove, and still they gave The field became a torn-out breath The bright edge of his earlier glory Now fed itself on human wreck For power loves the open hour When fear runs backward through a crowd And men who never doubted kings Begin to fear them speaking loud Agamemnon unleashed Let the torn earth repeat How a ruler can shine How a ruler can bleed Agamemnon unleashed For a while, for a piece Of one red morning’s cruel light He was war on his feet But no man rides the crest for long No hand stays high above the wheel The fiercest charge beneath the sun Already carries what will kneel So let them tell how far he drove How hard he made the daylight ring The field may bow before a king But time bows down to nothing
