Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, NAPOLEON AT SAINT HELENA, by M. G. WILLIAMS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

NAPOLEON AT SAINT HELENA, by                    
First Line: Quicksilver courage had escaped his hand
Last Line: The drum grew silent in his craven breast.
Subject(s): Courts & Courtiers


Quicksilver courage had escaped his hand;
The kelp was blanching on the ocean's lawn;
His face was wrinkled flotsam, white and drawn;
The little Corsican longed to join his band.
Napoleon cringed upon the lonely sand;
He gibbered, cursed at night's eternal dawn.
His leering warden took him for a pawn:
An ivory king brushed from the chessmen's land.

Was he remorseful in his final hour,
Accused by misty mothers of the slain,
Convicted by fog-jurors of the west?
The claw of twilight crunched his dream of power
While gnats and flies of doubt besieged his brain;
The drum grew silent in his craven breast.





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