Ere spoken was the Vale, deep, three-fold,

From the full heart above the unanswering lip

Of the bronze urn, in water clear to dip

A branch, and sprinkle all with pure light spray:

Or broken bough of bay

Or olive called the happy, since it yields

Fruit in unnumbered fields:

For thus they deemed the influence done away

Of barren Death, that else a spell might lay

On the warm living, subtly to annul