Blood-Red Poppies Bloom Poem by Elia Michael

Three hundred names were carved with pride
Of those Spartans who had all died
Where they had fought the Persian hordes
With their red cloaks and iron swords

Upon a marble cenotaph
Was their laconic epitaph
The tomb and names are lost to time
But the epitaph is sublime:

'Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by,
that here, obedient to their laws, we lie.'

Never more heart-rending words than these
Were composed by Simonides
And these words have come down to us
All because of Herodotus

The father of history
Wrote down this glorious story
How these brave three hundred Spartans
Did fight as Hellas’ guardians

At the Fiery Gates’ sacred ground
They lie unknown beneath a mound
The earth is their eternal tomb
Above them blood-red poppies bloom



(This translation of Simonides' epitaph is that of Steven Pressfield who wrote an excellent novel 'The Gates of Fire' based on the actual events)