Axis & Allies - damowords

Copenhagen
Ascending in a ring of rising stars
The great Horatio steers his native bark,
From body markʹd by brutal battle scars,
Lone arm points to a stubborn Denmark;
Whose Northern League
Defends neutrality ‐
Parisian intrigue drives English fleets to sea.
Cleaving a path between the bouys
Rare heart upon pinnʹd sleeve worn
These lads the admʹralty employs
Oaks from a press‐ganʹd acorn
Shall drape the Danes in death & noise
From wrackʹd ships sailors shorn
Where Nelsonʹs magnaminous ministry
Rescues so many from that crimson sea.
From port‐to‐port the story flows,
Legendary prowess!
Consulate knows their ancyent foes
Defy naval duress,
Says Bonaparte, ʺWe must build fleets to beat the seaʹs mistress.ʺ
France
1801
A Nervous Peace
When only rust could halt hegememony
Exists a stalemate of the warring lords ‐
The British crown commands the rolling sea,
Impervious to sharpenʹd Gaurdsmen swords;
As rust takes time
A pact of peace is sought,
Good chance to swerve my rhyme from battles fearless fought.
An element of pageantry
Fills the roads to Amiens,
Upstanding cathedral city
Next host of the bandwagon
His consulate arrives as three,
In reality one ‐
Napoleon snakes as the Grecian ghouls
Taking the Saxon delegates for fools.
The beaugoisie leap on the float,
With none foreseeing strife,
Drunk with devotion most men vote
Him First Consul for life ‐
Now to succeed his succession he searches for a wife.
France
1802