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Famous Austerlitz Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous Austerlitz poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous austerlitz poems. These examples illustrate what a famous austerlitz poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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by Kipling, Rudyard
...begin to beat.
(If you take the first step, you will take the last!)

"How far is St. Helena from the field of Austerlitz?"
You couldn't hear me if I told--so loud the cannons roar.
But not so far for people who are living by their wits.
("Gay go up" means "Gay go down" the wide world o'er!)

"How far is St. Helena from the Emperor of France."
I cannot see-- I cannot tell--the Crowns they dazzle so.
The Kings sit down to dinner, and the Queens sta...Read More



by Browning, Robert
...marriage, cant to us the Church, 
And resurrection of the old r?gime ? 
Would I, who hope to live a dozen years, 
Fight Austerlitz for reasons such and such? 
No: for, concede me but the merest chance 
Doubt may be wrong--there's judgment, life to come! 
With just that chance, I dare not. Doubt proves right? 
This present life is all?--you offer me 
Its dozen noisy years, without a chance 
That wedding an archduchess, wearing lace, 
And getting called by divers new-coined...Read More

by Sandburg, Carl
...PILE the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work—
 I am the grass; I cover all.

And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
 What place is this?
 Where are we now?

 I am the grass.
 Let me work....Read More

by Wilde, Oscar
...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!

Poor boy! thou shalt not flaunt thy cloak of red,
Or ride in state through Paris in the van
Of thy returning legions, but instead
Thy mother France, free and republican,

Shall on thy dead and crownless for...Read More

by Wilde, Oscar
...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!

Poor boy! thou shalt not flaunt thy cloak of red,
Or ride in state through Paris in the van
Of thy returning legions, but instead
Thy mother France, free and republican,

Shall on thy dead and crownless for...Read More



by Lowell, Amy
...and down their ladders like lizards on a wall.
Tap! Tap! Tink!
Clink! Clink!
"Oh, merciful God, they will not touch Austerlitz!
Strike me blind, my God, my eyes can never look on that.
I would give the other leg to save it, it took one.
Curse them! Curse them! Aim at his hat.
Give me the stone. Why didn't you give it to me?
I would not have missed. Curse him!
Curse all of them! They have got the `A'!"
Ding! Ding!
"I saw the Terror, but I never saw so h...Read More

by Hugo, Victor
...civic-laurels—honored dead! 
 So bright your triumphs in life's morn, 
 Your maiden-standards hacked and torn, 
 On Austerlitz might lustre shed. 
 
 All that your fathers did re-done— 
 A people's rights all nobly won— 
 Ye tore them living from the shroud! 
 Three glorious days bright July's gift, 
 The Bastiles off our hearts ye lift! 
 Oh! of such deeds be ever proud! 
 
 Of patriot sires ye lineage claim, 
 Their souls shone in your eye of flame; 
 Commenc...Read More

by Chesterton, G K
...not end by Nelson's urn
Where an immortal England sits--
Nor where your tall young men in turn
Drank death like wine at Austerlitz.
And when the pedants bade us mark
What cold mechanic happenings
Must come; our souls said in the dark,
'Belike; but there are likelier things.'

Likelier across these flats afar
These sulky levels smooth and free
The drums shall crash a waltz of war
And Death shall dance with Liberty;
Likelier the barricades shall blare
Slaughter below an...Read More

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