_Let us_, _who part like brothers_, _part like bards_; _And you in your tongue and measure_, _I in mine_, _Our now division duly solemnise_. _Unlike the strains_, _and yet the theme is one_: _The strains unlike_, _and how unlike their fate_! _You to the blinding palace-yard shall call_ _The prefect of the singers_, _and to him_, _Listening devout_, _your valedictory verse_ _Deliver_; _he_, _his attribute fulfilled_, _To the island chorus hand your measures on_, _Wed now with harmony_: _so them_, _at last_, _Night after night_, _in the open hall of dance_, _Shall thirty matted men_, _to the clapped hand_, _Intone and bray and bark_. _Unfortunate_! _Paper and print alone shall honour mine_. THE SONG Let now the King his ear arouse And toss the bosky ringlets from his brows, The while, our bond to implement, My muse relates and praises his descent. I Bride of the shark, her valour first I sing Who on the lone seas quickened of a King. She, from the shore and puny homes of men, Beyond the climber’s sea-discerning ken, Swam, led by omens; and devoid of fear, Beheld her monstrous paramour draw near. She gazed; all round her to the heavenly pale, The simple sea was void of isle or sail— Sole overhead the unsparing sun was reared— When the deep bubbled and the brute appeared. But she, secure in the decrees of fate, Made strong her bosom and received the mate, And, men declare, from that marine embrace Conceived the virtues of a stronger race. II Her stern descendant next I praise, Survivor of a thousand frays:— In the hall of tongues who ruled the throng; Led and was trusted by the strong; And when spears were in the wood, Like a tower of vantage stood:— Whom, not till seventy years had sped, Unscarred of breast, erect of head, Still light of step, still bright of look, The hunter, Death, had overtook. III