Read "Don Juan" by Lord Byron online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
I / The antique Persians taught three useful things, / To draw the bow, to ride, and speak the truth. / This was the mode of Cyrus, best of kings -- / A mode adopted since by modern youth. / Bows have they, generally with two strings; / Horses they ride without remorse or ruth; / At speaking truth perhaps they are less clever, / But draw the long bow better now than ever.
II / The cause of this effect, or this defect, -- / "For this effect defective comes by cause," -- / Is what I have not leisure to inspect; / But this I must say in my own applause, / Of all the Muses that I recollect, / Whate'er may be her follies or her flaws / In some things, mine's beyond all contradiction / The most sincere that ever dealt in fiction.