 The poem "El Dorado" has four verses. James Caans character recites  three, omitting the second, which laments the aging knights failure  to locate Eldorado. He recites the first verse and part of the  fourth riding with Wayne after they meet for the first time, the  third when Wayne is about to ride out for the final gunfight, and  the complete fourth when he himself takes up the second wagons  reins.