“Shame on ye, Grecian youths! to you I look’d As to our ships’ defenders; but if ye Shrink from the perilous battle, then indeed Our day is come, to be by Troy subdu’d. O Heav’n! a sad and wondrous sight is this, A sight I never deem’d my eyes should see, Our ships assail’d by Trojan troops; by those Who heretofore have been as tim’rous hinds Amid the forest depths, the helpless prey Of jackals, pards, and wolves; they here and there, Uncertain, heartless, unresisting, fly: Such were the Trojans once; nor dar’d abide, No, not an hour, the strength and arms of Greece; And these are they, who now beside our ships, Far from their city walls, maintain the fight, Embolden’d by our great commander’s fault, And slackness of the people, who, with him Offended, scarce are brought to guard our ships. And, feebly fighting, are beside them slain. E’en though the mighty monarch, Atreus’ son, Wide-ruling Agamemnon, be in truth Wholly to blame in this, that he hath wrong’d The son of Peleus, yet ’tis not for us Our courage to relax. Arouse ye then! A brave man’s spirit its vigour soon regains. That ye, the best and bravest of the host, Should stand aloof thus idly, ’tis not well; If meaner men should from the battle shrink, I might not blame them; but that such as ye Should falter, indignation fills my soul. Dear friends, from this remissness must accrue Yet greater evils; but with gen’rous shame And keen remorse let each man’s breast be fill’d; Fierce is the struggle; in his pride of strength Hector has forc’d the gates and massive bars, And raging, ’mid the ships maintains the war.”