THE PRINCE IMPERIAL (THE POET LAUREATE’S SONNET)

Exile or Cæsar? Death hath solved thy doubt, And made thee certain of thy changeless fate; And thou no more hast wearily to wait, Straining to catch the people’s tarrying shout That from unrestful rest would drag thee out, And push thee to those pinnacles of State Round which throng courtly loves, uncourted hate, Servility’s applause, and envy’s flout. Twice happy boy! though cut off in thy flower, The timeliest doom of all thy race is thine: Saved from the sad alternative, to pine For heights unreached, or icily to tower, Like Alpine crests that only specious shine, And glitter on the lonely peak of Power. Alfred Austin. June, 1879.