Flower Pieces and other poems By William Allingham: With two designs by Dante Gabriel Rossetti |
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CAPE USHANT.
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 | Flower Pieces and other poems |  |
177
CAPE USHANT.
(THE LAST LOOK.)
A real incident. The day was Sunday, July the 23rd, 1815. See Captain Maitland's ‘Narrative of the Surrender of Bonaparte,’ p. 109 (London: Colburn, 1826); and ‘Memoirs of an Aristocrat and Anecdotes of Napoleon’ (London: Whittaker, 1837).
Our ship, the stout Bellerophon,
Off Rochefort Harbour lay:
We took a passenger on board,
And slowly sail'd away.
Seven days and nights, with baffling winds,
We strove to fetch Tor Bay.
Off Rochefort Harbour lay:
We took a passenger on board,
And slowly sail'd away.
Seven days and nights, with baffling winds,
We strove to fetch Tor Bay.
The eighth day, with the rising sun,
A morning in July,
French land upon our starboard bow
We plainly could descry;
A morning in July,
French land upon our starboard bow
We plainly could descry;
When I, a little middy
(Ah! sixty years ago),
Came up, to take my watch on deck,
Into the early glow.
(Ah! sixty years ago),
Came up, to take my watch on deck,
Into the early glow.
Magnificently rose the sun
Above the hills of France,
And spread his splendour on the sea,
And through the sky's expanse.
Above the hills of France,
And spread his splendour on the sea,
And through the sky's expanse.
Meanwhile, upon the poop, alone,
Our Passenger stood there,
And view'd the gently gliding land
In clearest morning air,—
The cliffs of Ushant, and the slopes
Of shadowy Finisterre.
Our Passenger stood there,
And view'd the gently gliding land
In clearest morning air,—
The cliffs of Ushant, and the slopes
Of shadowy Finisterre.
178
‘Ushant?’ he asked; and I replied,
‘Yes, sire.’ Whereon he raised
His little pocket-telescope,
And gazed, and ever gazed.
‘Yes, sire.’ Whereon he raised
His little pocket-telescope,
And gazed, and ever gazed.
For hours and hours he hardly moved;
And if his eyes grew dim,
We never saw it; there he stood,
And none went near to him.
And if his eyes grew dim,
We never saw it; there he stood,
And none went near to him.
Till with a faint and fickle wind
We drew from off the coast,
And in a noontide haze of heat
France faded, and was lost.
We drew from off the coast,
And in a noontide haze of heat
France faded, and was lost.
Napoleon's thoughts in that last look
It were in vain to seek;
He had enough to think upon
If he had gazed a week.
It were in vain to seek;
He had enough to think upon
If he had gazed a week.
And sometimes from his rock, perhaps,
He saw, amid the shine
Of lonely waves, Cape Ushant's ghost
Far on the dim sea-line.
He saw, amid the shine
Of lonely waves, Cape Ushant's ghost
Far on the dim sea-line.
| Flower Pieces and other poems | |