REELY'S POETRY BLOG

Here is a poem I came across by Eugenius Roche, adding to our poetry on Napoleon. (We noted last February that Lord Byron covered both Elba and St. Helena.) Eugenius Roche, although born in Dublin in 1786, was actually raised in France, and moved to London around 1804, where he worked as editor on a magazine that published some of Byron’s early poems. I’m just guessing, but since Mr. Roche was a young man actually living in Paris during the years leading up to Napoleon’s coronation, he probably felt a lot more connected to the events than the English poets. Roche’s father was a language professor who made sure his children spoke several languages, but Roche’s first language was considered to be French and he had composed and published several poems in French before going to England. The comments after the title belong to Mr. Roche.

THE EXILE.

The following sonnet is founded on the accounts of St. Helena, published when that island became the prison of the greatest conqueror of modern times. Thunder-storms were represented as altogether unknown. It appears, however, by the observations of his friends, that serenity is far from being the general character of the climate.

Oh, for a peal of thunder!—smile no more,
Eternal sunshine, thou fatiguest my soul!
In calm and majesty no longer roll
Vast ocean! but in all thy tempests roar,
And lash with mountain-waves my prison shore!
Send forth your voices, angels of the pole,
Hither wild whirlwinds be your constant goal,
And give my spirit wings of storm to soar:
I’ll rush into the past, and as around
The mingling thunders of your conflict peal,
Shall burst upon mine ear the battle sound,
Shall break upon mine eye the ranks of steel,
Till planting o’er the earth my flag unfurled,
I’ll stand, and seem once more the monarch of a world!

Byron wrote an Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte when the emperor was compelled to abdicate in 1814. It originally consisted of the first eleven stanzas, and later increased to nineteen stanzas. (Click on the poem name to read it).

After Napoleon escaped from the island of Elba on today’s date, February 26 in 1815 (which, by the way, was Victor Hugo’s 13th birthday), Byron wrote in a letter:

“… It is impossible not to be dazzled and overwhelmed by his character and career. Nothing ever so disappointed me as his abdication, and nothing could have reconciled me to him but some such revival as his recent exploit; though no one could anticipate such a complete and brilliant renovation. …” and he also wrote:

On Napoleon’s Escape from Elba

Once fairly set out on his party of pleasure,
Taking towns at his liking, and crowns at his
leisure,
From Elba to Lyons and Paris he goes,
Making balls for the ladies, and bows to his
foes.

Links:
Gaslight’s Napoleonic Poetry