Prince Rasselas part 3

Imlac's Story, 

Continued and Ended

As Imlac continued his story,

He told how he got on a ship

And he traveled away to a country

that he never had seen before

And in this unknown country

Where he didn't know the language

He was cheated and stolen from

By the Arabs he traveled with

At length he came to a city

Where poets were revered

But since he was not yet a poet

He was obviously not revered

But he put himself so to study

That soon he became quite important

So the Emperor met him

And the ladies of the court too

Because they wanted to hear him speak.

At last though, he began to think

And as he saw poets so revered

And how great they seemed

He decided he wanted to be one

So he read all the great poets

And memorized their poems,

But at last he came to a conclusion

You could not be a poet by copying

But you can be a poet by thinking

So he learned the way that poets think

And he learned to think like a poet

Till at last he had become quite distinguished

In the trade of song and verse

Now here the poet interrupted himself

To speak on how great poets were,

How hard it was to be them

Or at least to learn to be them

but how rewarding it was when you were one

(And I can attest to the truth of this)

But the Prince Interrupted 

And told him quite nicely that

"Being a poet is so terribly hard, 

That I'd rather not hear about it"

So Imlac went on with the story of his travels

But summed it up quite quickly

He told how he traveled through quite a few countrys

But in every one poets were admired

And at last he was homesick

And longed to come home, so he boarded a ship to get home

Now when he got home (I am sad to say it)

He found his father was dead, 

Fourteen years dead that is

And many of his friends, had gone to the grave

And the ones alive couldn't remember him

He courted a lady, but she rejected him

Because he was of the Merchants

(Or rather his father was one)

So he went to the gate, the old Iron gate

That barred the way to the Happy Valley

And he waited and waited and waited

At last it wasn't opened, When the King went through

And he sang for the princes and was accepted

And so ended the story of the Minstrel Imlac

But next week we'll hear, of the story of how

Prince Rasselas finds the way out.

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