Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

STATISTICS by CARL SANDBURG

Poet Analysis

First Line: NAPOLEON SHIFTED
Last Line: AND THE COOL NIGHT STARS.
Subject(s): WORLD WAR I; FIRST WORLD WAR;
NAPOLEON shifted,
Restless in the old sarcophagus
And murmured to a watchguard:
"Who goes there?"
"Twenty-one million men,
Soldiers, armies, guns,
Twenty-one million
Afoot, horseback,
In the air,
Under the sea."
And Napoleon turned to his sleep:
"It is not my world answering;
It is some dreamer who knows not
The world I marched in
From Calais to Moscow."
And he slept on
In the old sarcophagus
While the aeroplanes
Droned their motors
Between Napoleon's mausoleum
And the cool night stars.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net