Classic Poem

So noble that he made me wince
They sat beside me quite a Prince,
So tall, so clean, so fair a thing,
He filled the name of Adam King.

I hardly looked to see his face,
He made me bashful by his grace,
Behind that school desk's narrow stage
He seemed an eaglet in a cage.

His silence spoke like woman's charms,
But when he raised his voice and arms
In oratory, thrilled we dumb,
As if the son of Speech had come.

Beautiful friend, I followed far
Into the jaws of lengthened war!
He trode the ramparts as with wing,
The first, the fittest, Adam King!

In public life he filled the breach,
A help to statesman by his speech,
And rose to office with acclaim,
As golden as his kingly name.

If pleasure the pomegranite specked
Firm fruit his gracious intellect;
Not all the nation forth could bring
A speaker like our Adam King.

And when he died, a voice from far
Fell like the poet's voice of star;
O, idol of my childhood's lot,
Shall I go up and hear thee not?