The Isles of Loch Awe and Other Poems of my Youth With Sixteen Illustrations. By Philip Gilbert Hamerton |
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CASTS. |
 | The Isles of Loch Awe and Other Poems of my Youth |  |
366
CASTS.
When the great Napoleon lay
A heap of lifeless clay,
When his proud career was ended on his dreary prison isle,
When all was dark within,
His features pale and thin,
And the selfish lips lay open and relaxed into a smile,
A heap of lifeless clay,
When his proud career was ended on his dreary prison isle,
When all was dark within,
His features pale and thin,
And the selfish lips lay open and relaxed into a smile,
They knew it could not last;
So they took a careful cast
Of the stern face of the conqueror so beautiful in death.
And the bronze is dark and cold,
But the maggot of the mould
Shall never kiss its brazen lips, although they have no breath.
So they took a careful cast
Of the stern face of the conqueror so beautiful in death.
And the bronze is dark and cold,
But the maggot of the mould
Shall never kiss its brazen lips, although they have no breath.
367
So we keep the handsome face
Of the tyrant of the race,
But Nature models carefully the children of her hand;
And little trivial things,
Like Earth's most famous kings,
Leave their lovely forms behind them in the marble of the land.
Of the tyrant of the race,
But Nature models carefully the children of her hand;
And little trivial things,
Like Earth's most famous kings,
Leave their lovely forms behind them in the marble of the land.
And their images shall tell
That Nature loved them well,
And made their form enduring when their substance was no more.
So she modelled trunks of trees,
And the fishes of the seas,
And the fern-leaves of the forest, and the shells upon the shore.
That Nature loved them well,
And made their form enduring when their substance was no more.
So she modelled trunks of trees,
And the fishes of the seas,
And the fern-leaves of the forest, and the shells upon the shore.
And her cabinets of rock,
Let us enter and unlock,
And gather of her treasures in the bosom of the earth;
The medals of her reign,
And the records that have lain
Unopened by our ancestors who never knew their worth.
Let us enter and unlock,
And gather of her treasures in the bosom of the earth;
The medals of her reign,
And the records that have lain
Unopened by our ancestors who never knew their worth.
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