Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Scorpio (Sonnets)
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers
When knaves and fools combin'd o'er all prevail,
When justice halts, and right begins to fail;
E'en then the boldest start from public sneers,
Afraid of shame, unknown to other fears,
More darkly sin, by satire kept in awe,
And shrink from ridicule, though not from law.
The time has been when no harsh sound would fall,
From lips that now may seem inbued with gall;
Nor fools nor follies tempt me to despise
The meanest thing that crawl'd beneath my eyes;
But now so callous grown, so chang'd since youth,
I've learn'd to think, and sternly speak the truth;
Learn'd to deride the critic's starch decree,
And break him on the wheel he meant for me;
To spurn the rod a scribbler bids me kiss,
Nor care if courts and crowds applaud or hiss;
Nay more, though all by rival rhymsters frown,
I too can hunt a poetaster down,
And, arm'd in proof, the gauntlet cast at once.
Lord Byron
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