Oh, ye great bulletins of Bonaparte!

Oh, ye less grand long lists of killed and wounded!

Shade of Leonidas, who fought so hearty,

When my poor Greece was once, as now, surrounded!

Oh, Cæsar's Commentaries! now impart, ye

Shadows of Glory! (lest I be confounded),

A portion of your fading twilight hues—

So beautiful, so fleeting—to the Muse.