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59
ON A PORTRAIT OF NAPOLEON I. BY DAVID
A meteor-man of destiny,
Who trod,
Through others' weakness, up the paths of strength,
Uncumbered and unshod
Of charity,
Till in the sky
He flamed, at length,
A mid-day sun,
A people's god—
Napoleon.
His courtiers shone
Like bees upon his mantle strewn;
And yet his fate
Left him with rent robes, desolate.