Fugitive Poetry. 1600–1878/Napoleon's Last Request
Napoleon's Last Request.
Ah! bury me deep in the boundless sea,
Let my heart have a limitless grave,
For my spirit in life was as fierce and free
As the course of the tempest wave;
And as far from the reach of mortal control
Were the depths of my fathomless mind;
And the ebbs and the flows of my single soul
Were tides to the rest of mankind.
Then my briny pall shall engirdle the world,
As in life did the voice of my fame,
And each mountainous billow that skyward curls
Shall to fancy re-echo my name;—
That name shall be storied in record sublime,
In the uttermost corners of earth,
And renowned till the wreck of expiring time,
Be the glorified land of my birth.
Yes, bury my heart in the boundless sea,—
It would burst from a narrower tomb,
Should less than an ocean my sepulchre be,
Or if wrapped in less horrible gloom.
Let my heart have a limitless grave,
For my spirit in life was as fierce and free
As the course of the tempest wave;
And as far from the reach of mortal control
Were the depths of my fathomless mind;
And the ebbs and the flows of my single soul
Were tides to the rest of mankind.
Then my briny pall shall engirdle the world,
As in life did the voice of my fame,
And each mountainous billow that skyward curls
Shall to fancy re-echo my name;—
That name shall be storied in record sublime,
In the uttermost corners of earth,
And renowned till the wreck of expiring time,
Be the glorified land of my birth.
Yes, bury my heart in the boundless sea,—
It would burst from a narrower tomb,
Should less than an ocean my sepulchre be,
Or if wrapped in less horrible gloom.