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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=396070" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Don Juan: Canto the First</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=396070" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">I <br> I want a hero: an uncommon want, <br> When every year and month sends forth a new one, <br> Till, after cloying the gazettes with cant, <br> The age discovers he is not the true one; <br> Of such as these I should not care to vaunt, <br> I'll therefore take our ancient friend Don Juan, <br> We all have seen him, in the pantomime, <br> Sent to the Devil somewhat ere his time.II <br> Vernon, the butcher Cumberland, Wolfe, Hawke, <br> Prince Ferdinand, Granby, Burgoyne, Keppel, Howe, <br> Evil and good, have had their tithe of talk, <br> And filled their sign-posts then, like Wellesley now; <br> Each in their turn like Banquo's monarchs stalk, <br> Followers of fame, "nine farrow" of that sow: <br> France, too, had Buonaparté and Dumourier <br> Recorded in the Moniteur and Courier.III </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=396070" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> Barnave, Brissot, Condorcet, Mirabeau, <br> Pétion, Clootz, Danton, Marat, La Fayette <br> Were French, and famous people, as we know; <br> And there were others, scarce forgotten yet, <br> Joubert, Hoche, Marceau, Lannes, Desaix, Moreau, <br> With many of the military set, <br> Exceedingly remarkable at times, <br> But not at all adapted to my rhymes.IV </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=396070" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> Nelson was once Britannia's god of War, <br> And still should be so, but the tide is turn'd; <br> There's no more to be said of Trafalgar, <br> 'Tis with our hero quietly inurn'd; <br> Because the army's grown more popular, <br> At which the naval people are concern'd; <br> Besides, the Prince is all for the land-service, <br> Forgetting Duncan, Nelson, Howe, and Jervis.V </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=396070" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> Brave men were living before Agamemnon <br> And since, exceeding valorous and sage, <br> A good deal like him too, though quite the same none; <br> But then they shone not on the poet's page, <br> And so have been forgotten: I condemn none, <br> But can't find any in the present age <br> Fit for my poem (that is, for my new one); <br> So, as I said, I'll take my friend Don Juan.VI </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=396070" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> Most epic poets plunge "in medias res" <br> (Horace makes this the heroic turnpike road), <br> And then your hero tells, whene'er you please, <br> What went before--by way of episode, <br> While seated after dinner at his ease, <br> Beside his mistress in some soft abode, <br> Palace, or garden, paradise, or cavern, <br> Which serves the happy couple for a tavern.VII </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=396070" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> That is the usual method, but not mine-- <br> My way is to begin with the beginning; <br> The regularity of my design <br> Forbids all wandering as the worst of sinning, <br> And therefore I shall open with a line <br> (Although it cost me half an hour in spinning), <br> Narrating somewhat of Don Juan's father, <br> And also of his mother, if you'd rather....CC </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=396070" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"></a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=396070" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> My poem's epic, and is meant to be <br> Divided in twelve books; each book containing, <br> With love, and war, a heavy gale at sea, <br> A list of ships, and captains, and kings reigning, <br> New characters; the episodes are three: <br> A panoramic view of Hell's in training, <br> After the style of Virgil and of Homer, <br> So that my name of Epic's no misnomer.CCI </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=396070" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"></a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=396070" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> All these things will be specified in time, <br> With strict regard to Aristotle's rules, <br> The Vade Mecum of the true sublime, <br> Which makes so many poets, and some fools: <br> Prose poets like blank-verse, I'm fond of rhyme, <br> Good workmen never quarrel with their tools; <br> I've got new mythological machinery, <br> And very handsome supernatural scenery.CCII </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=396070" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"></a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=396070" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> There's only one slight difference between <br> Me and my epic brethren gone before, <br> And here the advantage is my own, I ween, <br> (Not that I have not several merits more, <br> But this will more peculiarly be seen); <br> They so embellish, that 'tis quite a bore <br> Their labyrinth of fables to thread through, <br> Whereas this story's actually true.CCIII </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=396070" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"></a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=396070" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> If any person doubt it, I appeal <br> To history, tradition, and to facts, <br> To newspapers, whose truth all know and feel, <br> To plays in five, and operas in three acts; <br> All these confirm my statement a good deal, <br> But that which more completely faith exacts <br> Is, that myself, and several now in Seville, <br> Saw Juan's last elopement with the Devil.CCIV </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=396070" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"></a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=396070" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> If ever I should condescend to prose, <br> I'll write poetical commandments, which <br> Shall supersede beyond all doubt all those <br> That went before; in these I shall enrich <br> My text with many things that no one knows, <br> And carry precept to the highest pitch: <br> I'll call the work "Longinus o'er a Bottle, <br> Or, Every Poet his own Aristotle."CCV </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=396070" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"></a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=396070" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> Thou shalt believe in Milton, Dryden, Pope; <br> Thou shalt not set up Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey; <br> Because the first is craz'd beyond all hope, <br> The second drunk, the third so quaint and mouthy: <br> With Crabbe it may be difficult to cope, <br> And Campbell's Hippocrene is somewhat drouthy: <br> Thou shalt not steal from Samuel Rogers, nor <br> Commit--flirtation with the muse of Moore.CCVI </a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=396070" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"></a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=396070" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> Thou shalt not covet Mr. Sotheby's Muse, <br> His Pegasus, nor anything that's his; <br> Thou shalt not bear false witness like "the Blues" <br> (There's one, at least, is very fond of this); <br> Thou shalt not write, in short, but what I choose: <br> This is true criticism, and you may kiss-- <br> Exactly as you please, or not--the rod; <br> But if you don't, I'll lay it on, by G{-}d!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><a href="http://poems.citatepedia.com/">poem</a> by <strong><a rel="author" href="http://authors.citatepedia.com/by.php?a=Byron">Byron</a></strong></div>