The Coming of the Third Estate

By John Kyriazoglou

A poem dedicated to the French Revolution inspired by Ancient Greek Wisdom

Where French upper clergy and nobility had a choice

Denying their country’s common people a strong voice

The simple every-day citizens found the quick solution

By declaring the violent and bloody French Revolution

So, all repression in France came to an abrupt halt

As the Third Estate opened Pandora’s sealed vault

Releasing the supreme principles of all humanity

To proclaim to all, Liberty, Fraternity and Equality

And as their full value was manifested in a strong alliance

They showed all Earth people the true North of Defiance

Piercing with speed through the rubric of French society

Bringing to all the new order of governing with humility

Taking into consideration the following wise ancient Greek sayings:

1. By Euripides: ‘The leaders of our country must not be those men that are rich but those men that are reasonable’;

2. By Homer: ‘No governor of a country should be indifferent when its people have entrusted their country to him (or her)’;

3. By Democritus: ‘The worst misfortune you can get to know is when your country is governed by men without any value’.

4. By Demosthenis: ‘No government can maintain itself if it is based on injustice, betrayal and perjury’; and  

5. By Aeschylus: ‘Neither a life of anarchy nor one beneath a despot should you praise; to all that lies in the middle a god has given excellence’.