Emphasis Preaching Journal

In the year 1549 the Duke of Orleans in the city of Blois, France, offered a prize to anyone who could compose a ballad containing the line "I am dying of thirst beside the fountain." ("Je meurs de soif aupr6es de la fontaine.") It is not known if anyone accepted the Duke's challenge then. In this century the contemporary American poet, Richard Wilbur, took up the challenge and wrote a poem Ballad for the Duke of Orleans. The Duke, of course, was not around to pay up on his promise. Wilbur's poem closes with these words.
Duke, keep your coin.
All men are born distraught.