Novel: Gates of Fire by Stephen Pressfield
Poem: "The Winners' by Unknown
Poem: "The Winners' by Unknown
Synthesis Paragraph
"Beyond the baffling fog and mist," are the stalwart Spartans from "[The] Gates of Fire", "...whose names are written in the scroll," anonymously titled 'The Winners'. In this poem, 'triumph' is described in unrhymed free-verse as a 'gate' periled with "pain, loneliness and hate" (line 3), that is passed by only the victorious and perseverant at heart.
Pressfield's Spartans are depicted as the "victorious and perseverant at heart" when they make their final stand against the armies of the Persian Empire atop rugged hills of Pelopenesia, where "pain, loneliness and hat[red]" consume the helot Xeones and his company of Spartans. Indeed, "The road is long, the dream is gone...The fighting heart still carries on..." atop the tempestuous slabs of Thermopylae.
