Echetlos by Robert Browning
At Marathon, an unarmored man in a goatskin fights with a ploughshare and helps the Greeks defeat Persia, then disappears. The Oracle instructs them to praise him as the Holder of the Ploughshare without seeking his name. The closing stanza contrasts his nameless deed with the lamented fates of Miltiadés and Themistokles.
By Robert Browning · Genre: Narrative Poetry, War Poetry, Legend · 479 words
First lines
Here is a story, shall stir you! Stand up, Greeks dead and gone, / Who breasted, beat Barbarians, stemmed Persia rolling on, / Did the deed and saved the world, for the day was Marathon!
No man but did his manliest, kept rank and fought away / In his tribe and file: up, back, out, down -- was the spear-arm play: / Like a wind-whipt branchy wood, all spear-arms a-swing that day!
Genres
- Narrative Poetry — Rhymed stanzas recount the stranger's intervention at Marathon, his disappearance after victory, and the Oracle's response.
- War Poetry — The battle unfolds through spear fighting, threatened Greek formations, and a ploughshare wielded against Persian troops.
- Legend — A mysterious fighter appears throughout the battle, disappears afterward, and receives an identifying epithet from the Oracle.
Tags
Battle of Marathon · anonymous heroism · ploughshare · Greek legend · oracles · military reputation
What this Textopian page supports
Echetlos is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Browning, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Robert Browning
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Narrative Poetry, War Poetry, Legend
- Length: 479 words
- Structure: 1 section, 10 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
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