Parerga/Description of Paris in 1800
< Parerga
FROM DE LAMARTINE.
DESCRIPTION OF PARIS IN 1800.
"Pour lancer tous ses fils à sa lutte inégale,
Paris semble des camps la grande capitale,"
&c. &c.
Paris semble des camps la grande capitale,"
&c. &c.
Paris is mustering all her children here,
To hurl them forth in desperate career
Against th' outnumbering foe; she seems to be
One vast metropolis of soldiery.
The long fair fields of France send up again
The living harvests of the battle-plain;
And through each gate fresh columns filing in
With song and jest their march of death begin,
To fill the gaps that Austrian sword and spear
Rend in the fourteen hosts of the frontier.
Banners are fluttering—now no longer gay,
The foeman's shot has torn their pomp away,
But gallant hearts flock round them, and adore
The veteran shreds of each old tri-color.
The rumbling cannons pass in gloomy state,
Their hoarse deep throats charged with the globes of fate;
And glinted back the sun's first ray appears
From the dense forests of the musqueteers.
To hurl them forth in desperate career
Against th' outnumbering foe; she seems to be
One vast metropolis of soldiery.
The long fair fields of France send up again
The living harvests of the battle-plain;
And through each gate fresh columns filing in
With song and jest their march of death begin,
To fill the gaps that Austrian sword and spear
Rend in the fourteen hosts of the frontier.
Banners are fluttering—now no longer gay,
The foeman's shot has torn their pomp away,
But gallant hearts flock round them, and adore
The veteran shreds of each old tri-color.
The rumbling cannons pass in gloomy state,
Their hoarse deep throats charged with the globes of fate;
And glinted back the sun's first ray appears
From the dense forests of the musqueteers.