Classic Poem

When to Law I gave my studies
'Gainst the impulse of my heart,
And from Song's delicious music
Half had torn myself apart,
To the God who wears the fillet
Oft I gave an idle song,
None to thee, O blindfold Goddess,
Sternly severing right from wrong.

Times are changed, and changed the Muses;
Now in this all-earnest age
Naught so fiercely stirs my bosom,
Naught so wakes my minstrel-rage,
As when thou with sword and balance,
Awful Themis, throned in might,
Bid'st the nations cry for vengeance,
Warnest kings to render right.