Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888.
On NelsonManuel Maria Barbosa du Bocage (1765–1805)
Translated by J. J. Aubertin
E
Nelson, in blood-stained robe, behold appear!
The shades are stricken with unwonted fear,
And round him crowd the ghosts of men of might.
Cries Alexander, rivetting his sight,
“What lustrous mortal thou, that enterest here?”
“’Tis I who raised from thraldom to her sphere
Europe, bowed down, half captive from the fight.
Incarnadined with blood I left the wave,
A bolt upon the furious Gaul I threw,
My country raises trophies o’er my grave.”—
On this the Macedonian weeps anew;
He to whom Victory vast regions gave,
Envies the man who did one race subdue.