King of kings

Definition and stakes

Charles Sprague An ode

As waits to crown that feeble hour?
There into life an infant empire springs!
There falls the iron from the soul;
There liberty’s young accents roll,
Up to the King of kings!
To fair creation’s farthest bound,
That thrilling summons yet shall sound;
The dreaming nations shall awake,
And to their centre earth’s old kingdoms shake.
Pontiff and prince, your sway
Must crumble from that day;
Before the loftier throne of Heaven,
The hand is raised, the pledge is given—
One monarch to obey, one creed to own,
That monarch, God, that creed, His word alone.
Source: Gutenberg

Portrait of Sir Edwin Arnold Sir Edwin Arnold The Light of Asia

And every dawn the dying rose was plucked, The dead leaves hid, all evil sights removed For said the King, "If he shall pass his youth Far from such things as move to wistfulness, And brooding on the empty eggs of thought, The shadow of this fate, too vast for man, May fade, belike, and I shall see him grow To that great stature of fair sovereignty When he shall rule all lands—if he will rule— The King of kings and glory of his time."
Source: Gutenberg

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