Overº them the winged ones screamed their glee, seahawk, seagul curlew and plover kestrel capercailzie. All the birds of the sea they trolled out rightbold and they heard of the kiss of Tristan and Isolde. So sang sea birds..

— Three caws for for Mister Mark
Sure he hasnt got much of a bark
And sure any he has is all beside the mark.
O ^|aEagle Wreneagle^a| Highflighty wouldn't it be a sky of a lark
To see that old busard whooping around in his shirt in the dark
And he hunting about for his speckled trousers in Palmerston park.
O moulty Mark
Youre the rummest old rooster ever crawled out of a unread Noah's ark
And you think you're the cock of the walk.
Fowls up! Tristan's a spry young spark
That'll tread her and wed her and bed her and red her
Without even winking the tale of a feather
And that's how that chap's going to make his money and mark.

The Four Waves of ^|aIreland Erin^a| also heard, leaning upon the staves of memory. Four emin eminently respectable old ^|agentlemen heladies^a| they looked got up in sleek holiday toggery for the occasion, grey half tall ^|ahat toque^a|, gre ^|atailormade^a| frock coat to match fathomglasses and soforth, you know, for all the world ^|aapart from the salt water^a| like the fourth viscount Powerscourt ^|aor North the auctioneer^a| at the royal Dublin socities annual horseshow. They had seen their share.. the capture of Sir Arthur Casement in the year ^|a432 1132^a| Coronation of Brian by the Danes at Clonmacnois ^|athe drowning of Pharoah F Phitzharris in the (proleptically) red sea^a|
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The drowning of poor Mat Keane of Dunlearey the scattering of the flemish armada off the coasts of Galway and Longford, the landing of St Patrick ^|aat Tara^a| in the year 1798, the dispersal of the French fleet under General Boche in the year 2002. And such was their memory that they had been appointed externº professors to the four chief seats of learning in Erin, the Universities of killorcure, kill them all killthemall, killeachother, killkelly-on-the-Flure, whither they wirelessed four times weekly lectures in the four modes of history, past, present, absent and future. Saltsea widowers all four they had been many ages before ^|asummarily^a| divorced by their respective ^|aspouses ^|bconsorts shehusbands^b|a| (with whom they had parted on the best of terms) by a decrees absolute issued by Mrs Justice ^|aSmashman Squelchman^a| in the married male offenders court at bohernabreena, one for inefficiency in backscratching, too for having broken ^|awind from behind rere-wind^a| without having first made a request in writing on stamped foolscap paper, three for having attempted hunish familiarities after a meal decompsed crab, four on account of ^|athe his^a| general ^|aappearance of his face cast of countenance^a|. Though that was ever so long ago they could still with an effort of memory and by counting ^|acarefully accurately^a| the four ^|aperiwinkle^a| buttons of the fly of their ^|atrousers knickybockies^a| recall the name of the four beautiful sisters Brinabride who were at p the moment touring the United States ^|aof Africa^a|
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Yet were they fettlesome anon, lured by ^|athe immortal rose of^{a| |a}Wombman's^a| beauty Often would they cling ^|ato the sides of tentacularly about the ships' waists of^a| the Northwall and Hollyhead boats and the Isle of Man tourist steamers, peering with glaucomatose unread eyes through the cataractic portholes of honeymoon cabins or ^|asalon saloon^a| ladies toilet apartements. {B}ut, when those ^|agossers jossers^a| aforesaid the four waves Four Waves of Erin, heard the detonation of the osculation ^|a(cataclysmic cataglotism)^a| which with ostentation ^|a(osculum cum basio necnon cum suavioque)^a| Tristan to Isolde gave then lifted they up round Irelands shores the wail of old men's ^|aglee. planxty:^a|

Highchanted the elderly w Waves of Erin, in-four-part Palestrian melody, four for all, all one in glee of grief of loneliness of age but with a bardic license there being about of birds and stars ^|aand noise^a| quite a sufficient ^|anumber quantity^a|

This ^|awas plashed^a| their way wavechant:

A birdless heaven, seadusk and oneº star,
low in the west
And thou, poor heart, loves image, faint and far,
Rememberest

——

Her ^|aclear cold seacold^a| eyes and her ^|asoftlifted soft foamwhite^a| brown
And fragrant hair,
Falling as through the silence falleth now
Dusk from the air.

——

A why wilt thou
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A why wilt thou remember these,
A why,
Poor heart, repine,
If the dear love she yielded with a sigh

——

Was never thine!