Lean to apology or praise, more like!

Does garment, simpered o'er as white, prove gray?

'Black, blacker than Acharnian charcoal, black

Beyond Kimmerian, Stugian blackness black,'

You bawl, till men sigh 'nearer snowiness!'

What follows? What one faint-rewarding fall

Of foe belabored ne'er so lustily?

Laugh Lamachos from out the people's heart?

He died, commanding, 'hero,' say yourself!

Gibe Nikias into privacy?—nay, shake