Buonaparte

Reprinted without any alteration among 'Early Sonnets' in 1872, and unaltered since.

  He thought to quell the stubborn hearts of oak,
  Madman!--to chain with chains, and bind with bands
  That island queen who sways the floods and lands
  From Ind to Ind, but in fair daylight woke,
  When from her wooden walls, lit by sure hands,
  With thunders and with lightnings and with smoke,
  Peal after peal, the British battle broke,
  Lulling the brine against the Coptic sands.
  We taught him lowlier moods, when Elsinore
  Heard the war moan along the distant sea,
  Rocking with shatter'd spars, with sudden fires
  Flamed over: at Trafalgar yet once more
  We taught him: late he learned humility
  Perforce, like those whom Gideon school'd with briers.