EXHAUSTED, faint, and pale, A fair young mother lies— She hears her babe's first wail, And lifts her languid eyes; For he, the Imperial Sire, Her couch of suffering tends— In his dark eyes the fire Of pride and triumph blends. And while his arms retain The new-born child of France, Ambition's phantom train Through brain and bosom dance? A shadowy line of kings In long prospective rise, On rush of eagle wings, They cross his dreaming eyes. A hundred cannons boom— Loud vivas rend the air— Ten thousand lights illume The city of the heir. The noble, brave, and fair, The palace portals throng— All earth deems rich and rare, The admiring gaze prolong. The regal splendours round The wond'rous cot that holds The worshipp'd heir, late found His robes, embroider'd, folds The ermine gem and lace That drape the tiny form. Shall o'er that placid face Sweep Revolution's storm? Shall madden'd thousands swell, And rush like waves on shore, Assail with blow and yell? All this hath been before. Pale Reichstadt, where art thou? Bordeaux and Orleans, where? Dead! exiles—wanderers now— And this is France's heir. The Sire hath rear'd a throne— Perchance a funeral pyre. Beneath chained thunders groan, And glows volcanic fire; And earthquake shock may rend The hollow-heaving earth, And from the gulf ascend A newer, sterner birth! The Titans of the press— The powers of speech and mind— Each in his dark recess, Like Samson, shorn and blind— May rise in strength and light, And, chainless, walk abroad; Their motto—Human right, Our country, and our God! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DOMESDAY BOOK: BARRETT BAYS by EDGAR LEE MASTERS SLANTS AT BUFFALO, NEW YORK by CARL SANDBURG ODES IV, 7. TO TORQUATUS. DIFFUGERE NIVES by QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS TO SHELLEY by JOHN BANISTER TABB OF THE LAST VERSES IN THE BOOK by EDMUND WALLER SUMMER NIGHT by KENNETH SLADE ALLING EMBLEMS OF LOVE: 14. THE POWERFUL ATTRACTION by PHILIP AYRES |