James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902. | | June 1 | Louis Napoleon | By Oscar Wilde (18541900) |
| | Killed in Africa by the Zulus on June 1, 1879, during a skirmish in the Zulu war. |
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| EAGLE of Austerlitz! where were thy wings | |
When far away upon a barbarous strand, | |
In fight unequal, by an obscure hand, | |
Fell the last scion of thy brood of Kings! | |
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Poor boy! thou wilt not flaunt thy cloak of red, | 5 |
Nor ride in state through Paris in the van | |
Of thy returning legions, but instead | |
Thy mother France, free and republican, | |
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Shall on thy dead and crownless forehead place | |
The better laurels of a soldiers crown, | 10 |
That not dishonoured should thy soul go down | |
To tell the mighty sire of thy race | |
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That France hath kissed the mouth of Liberty, | |
And found it sweeter than his honied bees, | |
And that the giant wave Democracy | 15 |
Breaks on the shores where Kings lay crouched at ease. | | |
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