Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE DEATH OF NAPOLEON, by ISAAC MCLELLAN JR. Poet's Biography First Line: Wild was the night; yet a wilder night Last Line: "and left him alone with his glory." Subject(s): Napoleon I (1769-1821) | ||||||||
WILD was the night, yet a wilder night Hung round the soldier's pillow; In his bosom there waged a fiercer fight Than the fight on the wrathful billow. A few fond mourners were kneeling by, The few that his stern heart cherished; They knew, by his glazed and unearthly eye, That life had nearly perished. They knew by his awful and kingly look, By the order hastily spoken, That he dreamed of days when the nations shook, And the nations' hosts were broken. He dreamed that the Frenchman's sword still slew, And triumphed the Frenchman's eagle, And the struggling Austrian fled anew, Like the hare before the beagle. The bearded Russian he scourged again, The Prussian's camp was routed, And again on the hills of haughty Spain His mighty armies shouted. Over Egypt's sands, over Alpine snows, At the pyramids, at the mountain, Where the wave of the lordly Danube flows, And by the Italian fountain, On the snowy cliffs where mountain streams Dash by the Switzer's dwelling, He led again, in his dying dreams, His hosts, the proud earth quelling. Again Marengo's field was won, And Jena's bloody battle; Again the world was overrun, Made pale at his cannon's rattle. He died at the close of that darksome day, A day that shall live in story; In the rocky land they placed his clay, "And left him alone with his glory." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BETRAND AND GOURGAUD TALK OVER OLD TIMES by EDGAR LEE MASTERS BONAPARTISME by KENNETH REXROTH AN ISLAND (SAINT HELENA, 1821) by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON ADVICE TO A RAVEN IN RUSSIA by JOEL BARLOW INCIDENT OF THE FRENCH CAMP by ROBERT BROWNING NAPEOLON'S FAREWELL; FROM THE FRENCH by GEORGE GORDON BYRON BATTLE OF THE BALTIC by THOMAS CAMPBELL HOHENLINDEN by THOMAS CAMPBELL NAPOLEON AND THE BRITISH [OR ENGLISH] SAILOR [BOY] by THOMAS CAMPBELL NEW ENGLAND'S DEAD! by ISAAC MCLELLAN JR. |
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