StoryTitle("caps", "The Death of Napoleon") ?>
Death of Napoleon," by Isaac McClellan (1806-99), was yet another of
the good old reader songs taught us by a teacher of good taste. We love
those teachers more the older we grow.
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Wild was the night, yet a wilder night", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Hung round the soldier's pillow;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "In his bosom there waged a fiercer fight", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Than the fight on the wrathful billow.", "") ?>
PagePoem(132, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A few fond mourners were kneeling by,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The few that his stern heart cherished;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They knew, by his glazed and unearthly eye,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "That life had nearly perished.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They knew by his awful and kingly look,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "By the order hastily spoken,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That he dreamed of days when the nations shook,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And the nations' hosts were broken.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He dreamed that the Frenchman's sword still slew,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And triumphed the Frenchman's eagle,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the struggling Austrian fled anew,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Like the hare before the beagle.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The bearded Russian he scourged again,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The Prussian's camp was routed,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And again on the hills of haughty Spain", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "His mighty armies shouted.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Over Egypt's sands, over Alpine snows,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "At the pyramids, at the mountain,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Where the wave of the lordly Danube flows,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And by the Italian fountain,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "On the snowy cliffs where mountain streams", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Dash by the Switzer's dwelling,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He led again, in his dying dreams,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "His hosts, the proud earth quelling.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Again Marengo's field was won,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And Jena's bloody battle;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Again the world was overrun,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Made pale at his cannon's rattle.", "") ?>
PagePoem(133, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He died at the close of that darksome day,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "A day that shall live in story;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "In the rocky land they placed his clay,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "\"And left him alone with his glory.\"", "") ?>
PoemAttribution("100", SmallCapsText("Isaac McClellan.")) ?>
PoemEnd() ?>