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Translated by John Hookham Frere
THE KING of Arragon looked down | |
| From Campo Veijo, where he stood, | |
| And he beheld the Sea of Spain, | |
| Both the ebb-tide and the flood. | |
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| He saw the galleys and the ships,— | 5 |
| How some set sail and others enter; | |
| Some were sailing on a cruise, | |
| And others on a merchant’s venture. | |
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| Some were sailing to Lombardy, | |
| And some to Flanders, far away, | 10 |
| And, O, how bright were the ships of war, | |
| With, swelling sails and streamers gay! | |
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| He saw the city that spread below,— | |
| Royal Naples, that noble town! | |
| And the three castles, how they stood, | 15 |
| On the great city looking down: | |
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| The new castle and the Capuan, | |
| And St. Elmo, far the best,— | |
| Like the sun at the noonday, | |
| It shone so bright above the rest. | 20 |
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| The king stood silent for a while, | |
| He gazed and wept at his own thought— | |
| “O Naples, thou ’rt a princely purchase, | |
| But thou hast been dearly bought! | |
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| “Many brave and loyal captains | 25 |
| You had cost, e’er you were won, | |
| Besides a dear and valiant brother, | |
| Whom I grieved for like a son,— | |
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| “Knights and gallant gentlemen, | |
| Whose like I ne’er shall see again; | 30 |
| Of soldiers and of other subjects, | |
| Many, many thousands slain. | |
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| “Two-and-twenty years you cost me, | |
| The best of my life that are passed away; | |
| For here this beard began to grow, | 35 |
| And here it has been turned to gray.” | |
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