At the Tomb of Napoleon Before the Elections in America – November, 1912 By Alan Seeger

    I stood beside his sepulchre whose fame,
    Hurled over Europe once on bolt and blast,
    Now glows far off as storm-clouds overpast
    Glow in the sunset flushed with glorious flame.
    Has Nature marred his mould? Can Art acclaim
    No hero now, no man with whom men side
    As with their hearts’ high needs personified?
    There are will say, One such our lips could name;
    Columbia gave him birth. Him Genius most
    Gifted to rule. Against the world’s great man
    Lift their low calumny and sneering cries
    The Pharisaic multitude, the host
    Of piddling slanderers whose little eyes
    Know not what greatness is and never can.