NAPOLEON III.
The following lines, suggested by the rise of Louis Napoleon, were written January 6th, 1853. The capitulation of Sedan occurred September 1, 1870, and the death of the exile of Chiselhurst, January 9, 1873.
The light-house that once crowned the pointed rock
Of Eddystone, its bold inventor deem’d
A work to last for centuries, nor dream’d
It would succumb beneath the tempest’s shock:
And, therefore, as if Providence to mock,
He housed within it when the lightning gleam’d
Mid storm and darkness, but when morning beam’d,
Nought stood upon the bare and granite block!
Ambition thus dares all, and rears on high,
With the audacity of human pride,
A pile that may with Egypt’s wonders vie;
Perceiving not—presumptuous homicide!—
The ministers of wrath, that lurking nigh,
Will scatter the proud fabric far and wide.