Ye who have read in HOMER's mighty song
How sage ULYSSES, AJAX towering strong,
Met at the funeral games on Trojan sands,
With knotted limbs and grip of sinewy hands,
To wrestle for the prize, attend, draw near,
And a new tale of coming tussle hear!

When great ACHILLES called them to the lists,
Those men of massive thews and ponderous fists,
"Scarce did the chief the vigorous strife propose,
When tower-like AJAX and ULYSSES rose.
Amid the ring each nervous rival stands
Embracing rigid with implicit hands."
Now Greek meets Greek again, but wrestling now
Is not as on old Ilion's shore, I trow;
Not now the olive crown, the long-wool'd sheep,
Is prize; 'tis Power they strive to win and keep.
By diverse dodges and by novel "chips,"
Subtler "approaches," and more artful "grips,"
The rival champions strive to lock and fell,
Gallia's devices, found to answer well
In wary onset and in finish slow,
Old Attic swiftness, seen in hold and throw.
Supplement or supplant. When AJAX stood
Before ULYSSES, neither seemed in mood
For long manoeuvring. To the clutch they came
With sinews of snap-steel and souls of flame.
"Close lock'd above, their heads and arm are mix'd;
Below their planted feet at distance fix'd: