Destiny

By Emma Lazarus (1849–1887)

The French Prince Imperial, only son of Louis Napoleon, born March 16, 1856.

PARIS, from throats of iron, silver, brass,

Joy-thundering cannon, blent with chiming bells,

And martial strains, the full-voiced pæan swells.

The air is starred with flags, the chanted mass

Throngs all the churches, yet the broad streets swarm

With glad-eyed groups who chatter, laugh, and pass,

In holiday confusion, class with class.

And over all the spring, the sun-floods warm!

In the Imperial palace that March morn,

The beautiful young mother lay and smiled;

For by her side just breathed the Prince, her child,

Heir to an empire, to the purple born,

Crowned with the Titan’s name that stirs the heart

Like a blown clarion—one more Bonaparte.