Oft-failing Nature strives to join in one,

And shape a hero,—pure and wise and bold:

In arts and arms the wonder of his peers,

The flower of princes, prince of cavaliers;

Tall, lithe of form, and of a Northern mien,

Gentle in speech and thought,—while thus he shone,

A rising star, though chosen of a queen,

Why seek the skies less tranquil than his own?

Why should he climb beside her perilous height,

And in that noonday blaze eclipse his light?