THERE fell a King! Not king alone in blood,
Nor royal throne by right of which he reigned,
But by the royalty of soul unstained,
And heart that beat but for his people's good.

A warrior, yet beyond the battlefield
The larger victories of peace he knew;
His life, a pledge to aims divinely true,
Most patient suffering divinely sealed.

There fell a King? Nay, there a king arose!
Stars do not set in night, though night goes down:
Steadfast they gleam in heaven's eternal crown
Though days in nights and nights in days may close.

'Lord of himself,' that greatest conqueror,
No nobler form in all his noble house,
Dead, the imperial crown still sits his brows,
And past the grave he still is emperor!