Thebes was my birthplace—an unrivalled city,
With many gates; but here I might declare
Some strange plain truths, except that it were pity
To blow a poet’s fabric into air;
Oh, I could read you quite a Theban lecture,
And give a deadly finish to conjecture!
But then you would not have me throw discredit
On grave historians—or on him who sung
The Iliad—true it is I never read it,
But heard it read when I was very young;