Page:Stevenson - Songs of Travel (1896).djvu/61

 XXIX

TO KALAKAUA

(With a present of a Pearl)

Silver Ship, my King—that was her name

In the bright islands whence your fathers came —

The Silver Ship, at rest from winds and tides,

Below your palace in your harbour rides:

And the seafarers, sitting safe on shore,

Like eager merchants count their treasures o'er.

One gift they find, one strange and lovely thing,

Now doubly precious since it pleased a king.

The right, my liege, is ancient as the lyre

For bards to give to kings what kings admire.

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