Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE CARNIVAL OF 1848, by WILLIAM ALLEN BUTLER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE CARNIVAL OF 1848, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Have you ever seen the carnival, at paris
Last Line: That the sovereigns of the last year are the harlequins of this!
Subject(s): Carnivals; Europe


HAVE you ever seen the Carnival, at Paris, or at Rome?
Have you quaffed its cup of merriment when it sparkled at its foam?
Have you caught its lively jest, and its stinging pasquinade?
Have you jostled with the masks in the motley masquerade?
Have you whirled along the Corso 'midst the torrents of confetti?
Have you marvelled at the beauty of the fairy mocholetti?

O merrier than this, and wilder in its play,
Is the Carnival they're keeping on the Continent to-day!
Not the idle rabble only, nor the shiftless, gay buffoon,
But the monarch plays the clown, and the prince the pantaloon;
With his subjects for spectators, as it suits to clap or hiss,
The sovereign of the last year is the harlequin of this.

'Twas France that set the fashion, in the month of February,
Louis Philippe led it off, this Carnival so merry,
To save himself from shooting, and his populace to please,
He took the funny character of poor old Char-les Dix;
And so popular it proved, and so very full of fun,
That in this famous character he had a famous run!

Then perforce with every Frenchman was the Carnival in vogue;
Then poets played the statesman, and statesmen played the rogue;
Then the wisest proved the weakest, and the weakest proved most strong;
And still goes on this Carnival; but who may know how long?
Or, when the masks are taken off, pray, who can tell us yet,
But what seems the Goddess Liberty may prove a mere grisette?

But the Germans joined the Carnival, that race of steady smokers,
And took it up in earnest, too, like practical old jokers;
And of their madcap plans, what did most execution
Was a monstrous Punchinello, whom they nicknamed Constitution;
Beneath the palace windows they bring the dreadful fellow,
And all the kings and dukes must dance around this Punchinello!

Nor was the joke forgotten, nor was the fun the least
In brilliant, bright Vienna, the Paris of the East!
There, by the rushing Danube, and in the shady Prater,
The peasant played the patriot, and the student played the martyr;
Then rang St. Stephen's arches with shouts of bloody revel,
While the altar steps were stained with the orgies of the Devil!

And though the Emperor Ferdinand frowned on his Kaiser-stadt,
And called the frolic treason, and rebellion, and all that;
And though he sent an army for the public taste to cater,
And shot poor Printer Blum for playing legislator;
Yet, after all, he could not keep from giving up himself,
So he dances from his throne, and his crown is on the shelf!

But the Carnival is always the merriest at Rome,
In the shadow of the Pincian and St. Peter's gorgeous dome;
While half the world is merry, shall they join the other half?
O no, the Romans only wait to have a louder laugh!
Around the Quirinal they cry, "Shall other lands outvie us?
Come out and join the Carnival, thou reverend Father Pius!"

O, when his turn was come, who joins the Carnival quicker
Than the Pontifex Supremus, and universal Vicar?
Not long it takes his Holiness to practise the deceiver,
He doffs the saintly cassock, and he dons the modern beaver,
And whirls in footman's livery, and past his palace gates,
Through the Porta San Giovanni, and beyond the Papal states.

So goes this merry Carnival, and who of us that guesses
Where it will stop or what 'twill do in all its wild excesses?
But it's evident there's something in the joke that's very taking,
For with its fun old Europe in all her sides is shaking;
And surely to good democrats the joke is not amiss,
That the sovereigns of the last year are the harlequins of this!





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