Hector

He strode across the schoolroom in July, Great Hector, clanging in his brazen mail; And all the cringing Greeks, with faces pale, Creaked into jabbering Ks and turned to fly. Achilles, safe because he could not die, Cheated and won; and all the lines grew stale. The life was gone from out the shabby tale; And back in Homer's teeth we flung the lie. We fought for Troy behind a mossy wall; We burned the Grecian ships below a tree . . . Ah, that great war was forty years ago ! Yet still I know that Hector did not fall; For when the bell rang truce to friend and foe, Achilles, lying Greek, was under me!