Thread by @AntonPrince7

Dear Isaac, you’ve listened to so many praises
And speeches, replete with grandiloquent phrases,
That you might be thankful if I may propose
To spare you tonight any ponderous prose,
And toast you in verse,
For better or worse.
...

This poem, which does not pretend to be art,
Is entitled Prince Issac, and comes from the heart.
...

What is a prince? An heir to a throne
Which he one day will occupy, grandly alone?
Not Isaac: His gift is to give and to share,
Renouncing the kingship, remaining the heir
To the kingdom of music, of beauty and truth,
And of justice and peace, and the glory of youth.
...

A curious prince, who deigns not to reign,
But rather to serve, in Apollo’s train;
To serve and to share; And his shares all return
to reward and ennoble prince Isaac Stern.
...

A curious Prince, never sporting his crest,
Who’d rather rejoice in his family nest.
But that nest is a princedom, a family realm
With its palace a tree, a wide-spreading elm
Whose branches are music, and players of same,
And whose sap is the blood of his family name.
...

One branch is Michael, and one branch is Vera,
One is called David, another called Shira.
A bright leaf called Itzhak, another called Mintz,
And Pinky — All stemming from Isaac the Prince.
...

This elm is not high, neither haughty nor tall,
But lordly in width, embracing us all:
Colleagues, disciples, and friends by the ton
Of whom I am happily proud to be one.
...

I conclude with a question, with which I began:
What is a prince? A prince is a man
Called Isaac; And all men are princes who learn
The lesson, and wisdom, of Isaac Stern.

~ Leonard Bernstein, December 3, 1980

All credits go to Mr Leonard Bernstein and to @LennyBernstein for making this wonderful poem available to us! A happy day is this, on which we remember Isaac, the noble prince 😊