Analysis of Ode To Napoleon Buonaparte
George Gordon Lord Byron 1788 (London) – 1824 (Missolonghi, Aetolia)
'Expends Annibalem:--quot libras in duce summo
Invenies?~JUVENAL., Sat. X.
I.
Tis done--but yesterday a King!
And arm'd with Kings to strive--
And now thou art a nameless thing:
So abject--yet alive!
Is this the man of thousand thrones,
Who strew'd our earth with hostile bones,
And can he thus survive?
Since he, miscall'd the Morning Star,
Nor man nor fiend bath fallen so far.
II.
Ill-minded man! why scourge thy kind
Who bow'd so low the knee?
By gazing on thyself grown blind,
Thou taught'st the rest to see.
With might unquestion'd,--power to save,--
Thine only gift hath been the grave
To those that worshipp'd thee;
Nor till thy fall could mortals guess
Ambition's less than littleness!
III.
Thanks for that lesson--It will teach
To after--warriors more
Than high Philosophy can preach,
And vainly preach 'd before.
That spell upon the minds of men
Breaks never to unite again,
That led them to adore
Those Pagod things of sabre sway
With fronts of brass, and feet of clay.
IV.
The triumph and the vanity,
The rapture of the strife--
The earthquake voice of Victory,
To thee the breath of life;
The sword, the sceptre, and that sway
Which man seem'd made but to obey,
Wherewith renown was rife--
All quell'd!--Dark Spirit! what must be
The madness of thy memory!
V.
The Desolator desolate!
The Victor overthrown!
The Arbiter of others' fate
A Suppliant for his own!
Is it some yet imperial hope
That with such change can calmly cope?
Or dread of death alone?
To die a prince--or live a slave--
Thy choice is most ignobly brave!
VI.
He who of old would rend the oak,
Dream'd not of the rebound:
Chain'd by the trunk he vainly broke--
Alone--how look'd he round?
Thou, in the sternness of thy strength,
An equal deed halt done at length,
And darker fate hast found:
He fell, the forest prowlers' prey;
But thou must eat thy heart away!
VII.
The Roman, when his burning heart
Was slaked with blood of Rome,
Threw down the dagger--dared depart,
In savage grandeur, home--
He dared depart in utter scorn
Of men that such a yoke had borne,
Yet left him such a doom!
His only glory was that hour
Of self-upheld abandon'd power.
VIII.
The Spaniard, when the lust of sway
Had lost its quickening spell,
Cast crowns for rosaries away,
An empire for a cell;
A strict accountant of his beads,
A subtle disputant on creeds,
His dotage trifled well:
Yet better had he neither known
A bigot's shrine, nor despot's throne.
IX.
But thou--from thy reluctant hand
The thunderbolt is wrung--
Too late thou leav'st the high command
To which thy weakness clung;
All Evil Spirit as thou art,
It is enough to grieve the heart
To see thine own unstrung;
To think that God's fair world hath been
The footstool of a thing so mean;
X.
And Earth hath spilt her blood for him,
Who thus can hoard his own!
And Monarchs bow'd the trembling limb,
And thank'd him for a throne!
Fair Freedom! we may hold thee dear,
When thus thy mightiest foes their fear
In humblest guise have shown.
Oh! ne'er may tyrant leave behind
A brighter name to lure mankind!
XI.
Thine evil deeds are writ in gore,
Nor written thus in vain--
Thy triumphs tell of fame no more,
Or deepen every stain:
If thou hadst died as honour dies,
Some new Napoleon might arise,
To shame the world again--
But who would soar the solar height,
To set in such a starless night?
XII.
Weigh'd in the balance, hero dust
Is vile as vulgar clay;
Thy scales, Mortality! are just
To all that pass away:
But yet methought the living great
Some higher sparks should animate,
To dazzle and dismay:
Nor deem'd Contempt could thus make mirth
Of these, the Conquerors of the earth.
XIII.
And she, proud Austria's mournful flower,
Thy still imperial bride;
How bears her breast the torturing hour?
Still clings she to thy side?
Must she too bend, must she too share
Thy late repentance, long despair,
Thou throneless Homicide?
If still she loves thee, hoard that gem,--
'Tisworth thy vanish'd diadem!
XIV.
Then haste thee to thy sullen Isle,
And gaze upon the sea;
That element may meet thy smile--
It ne'er was ruled by thee!
Or trace with thine all idle hand
In loitering mood upon the sand
That Earth is now as free!
That Corinth's pedagogue hath now
Transferr'd his by-word
Scheme | Text too long |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111011 1111 1 1111001 011111 01110101 110101 11011101 111011101 011101 1110101 111111011 1 11011111 111101 1101111 1110111 110101011 11011101 111101 11111101 1111 1 11110111 1101001 11010011 0101101 11010111 1101101 111101 1111101 11110111 1 01000100 010101 0111100 110111 01010011 11111101 10111 11110111 01011100 1 01100 01001 01001101 01111 111101001 11111101 111101 11011101 111111 1 11111101 111001 11011101 011111 10010111 11011111 010111 1101011 11111101 1 01011101 111111 11010101 010011 11010101 11110111 111101 110101110 110101010 1 01010111 1111001 11110001 1100101 01010111 010111 1111 11011101 011111 1 11110101 01011 11110101 111101 11010111 11011101 11111 11111111 0110111 1 01110111 111111 01101001 011101 11011111 111100111 0100111 11110101 01011111 1 11011101 110101 11011111 1101001 1111111 110100101 110101 11110101 1101011 1 10010101 111101 11010011 111101 1110101 11011100 110001 11011111 110100101 1 0111001010 1101001 1101010010 111111 11111111 11010101 1110 11111111 111010 1 11111101 010101 11001111 111111 11111101 010010101 111111 11111 01111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 4,070 |
Words | 755 |
Sentences | 58 |
Stanzas | 15 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10 |
Lines Amount | 142 |
Letters per line (avg) | 23 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 216 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 50 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 27, 2023
- 3:55 min read
- 254 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Ode To Napoleon Buonaparte" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/15152/ode-to-napoleon-buonaparte>.
Discuss this George Gordon Lord Byron poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In