Classic and Contemporary Poetry
NAPOLEON AT REST, by JOHN PIERPONT Poet's Biography First Line: His falchion flashed along the nile Last Line: The cloud's deep voice, the wind's low sigh. Variant Title(s): The Exile At Rest Subject(s): Napoleon I (1769-1821) | ||||||||
HIS falchion flashed along the Nile; His hosts he led through Alpine snows; O'er Moscow's towers, that shook the while, His eagle flag unrolled, -- and froze. Here sleeps he now, alone; -- not one Of all the kings whose crowns he gave, Nor sire, nor brother, wife, nor son, Hath ever seen or sought his grave. Here sleeps he now, alone; -- the star, That led him on from crown to crown, Hath sunk; -- the nations from afar Gazed, as it faded and went down. He sleeps alone; -- the mountain cloud That night hangs round him, and the breath Of morning scatters, is the shroud That wraps his martial form in death. High is his couch; -- the ocean flood Far, far below by storms is curled, As round him heaved, while high he stood, A stormy and inconstant world. Hark! Comes there from the Pyramids, And from Siberia's waste of snow, And Europe's fields, a voice that bids The world be awed to mourn him? -- No; -- The only, the perpetual dirge, That's heard here, is the sea-bird's cry, The mournful murmur of the surge, The cloud's deep voice, the wind's low sigh. | 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 ON LAYING THE CORNER-STONE OF THE BUNKER HILL MOMUMENT by JOHN PIERPONT |
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