Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 1.djvu/480

438 And had he fiddled at the present hour,

We'd seen the Lions waltzing in the Tower;

And old Amphion, such were minstrels then,

Had built St. Paul's without the aid of Wren.

Verse too was Justice, and the Bards of Greece

Did more than constables to keep the peace;

Abolished cuckoldom with much applause,

Called county meetings, and enforced the laws,

Cut down crown influence with reforming scythes,

And served the Church—without demanding tithes;

And hence, throughout all Hellas and the East,

Each Poet was a Prophet and a Priest,

Whose old-established Board of Joint Controls

Included kingdoms in the cure of souls.

Next rose the martial Homer, Epic's prince,

And Fighting's been in fashion ever since;

And old Tyrtæus, when the Spartans warred,