Frederick Iii Of Germany Poem by Ina D. Coolbrith

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!