Now to be lost for many days.
The queen his mother has, be sure,
A heart of iron, to endure
To see her godlike Rama go,
Nor feel it shattered by the blow.
Sita, well done! Videha's pride,
Still like his shadow by his side;
Rejoicing in thy duty still
As sunlight cleaves to Meru's hill.
Thou, Lakshman, too, hast well deserved,
Who from thy duty hast not swerved,
Tending the peer of Gods above,
Whose lips speak naught but words of love.
Thy firm resolve is nobly great,
And high success on thee shall wait.
Yea, thou shalt win a priceless meed--
Thy path with him to heaven shall lead."
As thus they spake, they could not hold
The tears that down their faces rolled,
While still they followed for a space
Their darling of Ikshvaku's race.

There stood surrounded by a ring
Of mournful wives the mournful king;
For, "I will see once more," he cried,
"Mine own dear son," and forth he hied.
As he came near, there rose the sound
Of weeping, as the dames stood round.
So the she-elephants complain
When their great lord and guide is slain.
Kakutstha's son, the king of men,
The glorious sire, looked troubled then,
As the full moon is when dismayed
By dark eclipse's threatening shade.
Then Dasaratha's son, designed
For highest fate of lofty mind,
Urged to more speed the charioteer,
"Away, away! why linger here?
Urge on thy horses," Rama cried,
And "Stay, O stay," the people sighed.
Sumantra, urged to speed away,
The townsmen's call must disobey,
Forth as the long-armed hero went,
The dust his chariot wheels up sent
Was laid by streams that ever flowed
From their sad eyes who filled the road.
Then, sprung of woe, from eyes of all
The women drops began to fall,
As from each lotus on the lake
The darting fish the water shake.
When he, the king of high renown,
Saw that one thought held all the town,
Like some tall tree he fell and lay,
Whose root the axe has hewn away.
Then straight a mighty cry from those
Who followed Rama's car arose,
Who saw their monarch fainting there
Beneath that grief too great to bear.
Then "Rama, Rama!" with the cry
Of "Ah, his mother!" sounded high,
As all the people wept aloud
Around the ladies' sorrowing crowd.
When Rama backward turned his eye,
And saw the king his father lie
With troubled sense and failing limb,
And the sad queen, who followed him,
Like some young creature in the net,
That will not, in its misery, let
Its wild eyes on its mother rest,
So, by the bonds of duty