Don Juan 01-005
Canto the First

V

Brave men were living before Agamemnon
     And since, exceeding valorous and sage,
A good deal like him too, though quite the same none;
     But then they shone not on the poet's page,
And so have been forgotten:-I condemn none,
     But can't find any in the present age
Fit for my poem (that is, for my new one);
So, as I said, I'll take my friend Don Juan.

George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron (1788-1824) ByronLong